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At the outset let me note that I am delighted to see someone of Professor Richard Stewart’s caliber taking aim at the trade and the environment debate. Professor Stewart’s article entitled International Trade and Environment: Lessons From the Federal Experience presents an interesting and informative discussion of how legal principles developed in the federal-type systems of the United States and the European Community can be examined as a template for solving many of the most troubling questions now being raised concerning the interplay between trade and the environment at the international level. While Professor Stewart’s analytical structure is informative, and in certain instances can provide answers to some of the problems raised by conflicts between trade and the environment, I caution against borrowing too much from the federal framework. This cautionary note is necessary because substantially different assumptions are at work when a federal system deals with commerce and environmental regulations, and when the international system deals with the inte~play between trade and the environment. This comment deals with these different assumptions on a theoretical level and addresses how these theoretical differences can effect substantial, real world differences in trade and environmental policies.
The comment closes with an alternative vision of trade and the environment premised on mutually reinforcing trade and environmental policies-“competitive sustainability.”