The agriculture sector is both a contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is affected by trade policies. As more and more regional trade agreements (RTAs) include environment-related provisions (ERPs), this technical note explores whether agriculture-related ERPs in RTAs are associated with reduced GHG emissions from agriculture. The research applies a novel dataset on ERPs related to the agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors (Ag-ERPs) to analyse this relationship in a panel of 195 countries and territories in RTAs notified to the World Trade Organization from 1995 to 2019. The findings show that there is indeed a significant reduction in agriculture-related GHG emissions in countries that enter into RTAs with more Ag-ERPs with their relevant trading partners in agricultural products. A mediation analysis reveals that this association is partly driven by stricter domestic environmental regulation, and partly by a reduction in agricultural land use. However, a large part of the overall association between RTAs with more Ag-ERPs and the reduction in agriculture-related emissions is still unexplained by these two channels. This suggests that lower GHG emission production methods are implemented at given levels of domestic environmental regulation and agricultural land use in countries with more Ag-ERPs in their relevant RTAs.

In general, a reduction in trade barriers will affect the environment by expanding the scale of economic activity, by altering the composition of economic activity and by initiating a change in the techniques of production. We present empirical evidence to assess the relative magnitudes of these three effects as they apply to further trade liberalization in Mexico. We first use comparable measures of three air pollutants in a cross-section of urban areas located in 42 countries to study the relationship between air quality and economic growth. We find for two pollutants (sulphur dioxide and 'smoke') that concentrations increase with per capita GDP at low levels of national income, but decrease with GDP growth at higher levels of income. We then study the determinants of the industry pattern of US imports from Mexico and of value added by Mexico's maquiladora sector. We investigate whether the size of pollution abatement costs in US industry influences the pattern of international trade and investment. Finally, we use the results from a computable general equilibrium model to study the likely compositional effect of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on pollution in Mexico.

The understanding that some pesticides are more hazardous than others is well established. Recognition of this is reflected by the World Health Organization (WHO) Recommended Classification of Pesticides by Hazard, which was first published in 1975. The document classifies pesticides in one of five hazard classes according to their acute toxicity. In 2002, the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) was introduced, which in addition to acute toxicity also provides classification of chemicals according to their chronic health hazards and environmental hazards.

Reference tool to facilitate broader understanding and awareness of relationship between environment and trade which can then become the basis on which fair and environmentally sustainable policies and trade flows are built.