The Fragile Genesis of the Environmental Protection in the Multilateral Trading System: an analysis of the period comprising Bretton Woods to the Tokyo Round (1947-1979)

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2177-7055.2016v37n73p193 The present paper analyses the first traces of the debates on environmental issues in the context of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), in the period that comprehends the negotiations of the charter of the intended International Trade Organization (ITO), 1947, until the end of the Tokyo Round, 1979. In order to assess this subject, this paper mainly refers to the texts of the agreements of the mentioned period and the documents produced during the negotiation rounds. The study of these three initial decades is relevant for a full grasp of the origins of a discussion that would gain strength in the subsequent years, and that rebounds until the present days.