THERE is no consensus on precisely when the use of trade measures to address environmental problems is legitimate. Under GATT, denying entry to imports on environmental grounds is legal so long as the same standards apply to domestic goods. But GATT also allows standards and regulations to be challenged if they are not based on scientific evidence and act solely as trade barriers.

International concern over green conditionalities being conceived in the interest of trade and not environment is building up. GATT is under pressure to develop Trade Related Environmental Measures so that multilaterally agreed trade measures can be developed.

But NGOs and academics are critical of uniform application of high product and process standards. "Unless the problem of inequalities in access to natural resources, finance, and technology is sorted out multilaterally, it will be difficult to prevent green protectionism," contends Charlie Arden-Clarke of the World Wide Fund for Nature International.

Indian economists believe that all countries should have sovereign rights to set their own standards. Says Jyoti Kirit Parikh*** of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Bombay, "After exhausting the potential absorbant capacity of its environment, the North is now eyeing the possibility of using ours and wants us to pay the cost of it. This should not happen. We will have to set our standards according to our space and capacity."

Indian industry wants any international fora involved with setting environmental standards to have adequate representation from all countries concerned. For instance, during the April meet of the International Council of Tanners in Auckland, New Zealand, in April this year, there was no representative from the All India Skin and Hide Tanners and Merchants' Associations, the country's apex organisation. Complains A Subramanian, managing partner of the Tamil Nadu-based Sri Gayathri Enterprises, "The arbitration is always in the hands of the Western nations. We should seek equal status."