Integrated and Distinctive Legal Order of Wto

2. The WTO is about trade but it recognizes the importance of non-trade

concerns

The WTO is of course a “trade” organisation; it comprises provisions that favour trade opening and

discipline trade restrictions. The basic philosophy of the WTO is that trade opening is good, and even

necessary, to increase people's standards of living and well-being. But at the same time the GATT, and

now the WTO Agreement, contains “exceptions” to market access obligations. Article XX of the GATT

provides that nothing prevents a member from setting aside market access obligations when that

member decides that considerations other than those of trade must prevail. This can happen when, for

instance, a member has made commitments in other areas, for example on an environmental issue,

when such an environmental commitment may lead to market access restrictions.

Moreover, the preamble of the WTO Agreement, contrary to that of the GATT, explicitly refers to

sustainable development as an objective of the WTO. While it is not yet clear whether sustainable

development has crystallized into a general principle of law, the reference to such an important nontrade principle shows that the signatories of the WTO Agreement were, in 1994, fully aware of the

importance and legitimacy of environmental protection as a goal of national and international policy.

Based on this new preamble, the evolution brought about by WTO jurisprudence resulted in a new

interpretation of the WTO that recognizes the place of trade in the overall scheme of states' actions.

The WTO now recognizes explicitly that trade is not the only policy