Towards international trade with sustainable development

Sustainable development is not a fashion anymore, it has become a need. From the happenings of Bhopal, India, and Chernobyl, former Soviet Union, to the ozone layer reduction and the recent controversy between Uruguay and Argentina regarding the paper production plant installation at one or the other border sides (and which, according to some authors, rather hides the fact that both countries want those investments for their own territory), the sustainability is more and more a requirement imbedded in public policy. These notes address these issues from the foreign trade viewpoint, by analyzing the trans-border implications of the pollution and the way businesses, governments, and civil society try to minimize the adverse effects of the international trade.