Sustainable Development and North-South Trade

The present acceleration of environmental destruction can be linked to the eco-nomic trading strategies that carne into vogue after World War 11. The theory of comparative advantages of trade, which recommends that developing countries enlpllasize resource exports and exports of labor-intensive products, has proven devastating to both the economies and environments of Latin America and Africa. In contrast, the Asian Tigers approach based on external ecorlornies of scale, 1115 generated knowledge-intensive products where benefits spread across whole in-dustries and whole economies, leading to more econonlic growth with much less environmental degradation. Such an approach should be promoted tllrougllout the world trading system instead of the resource-intensive patterns of growth that continue to threaten our global environment. This is particularly important because other resource-conserving strategies, such as green accounting and prop-erty rights regimes, remain politically unattainable. The Global Environment Today I human beings, or their close genetical relatives, have lived on earth for several ynil