Introduction
International free trade and environmental protection have appeared mutually exclusive in the modern world. This has been more the case at the turn of the decade of the 1990s with the adoption of the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in the Uruguay Round and the subsequent establishment of the World Trade Organization in the year 1994. Liberalization in trade has been touted as a major force of enhancing the economic welfare of the world. At the same period, there arose the concept of sustainable development which emphasizes on the environmental protection and the issue of sustainable development gained ...