Reigniting a dispute over environmental protection and the World Trade Organization, Malaysia yesterday accused the U.S. of failing to overhaul its laws to permit unrestricted shrimp imports. In 1998, a WTO panel struck down a U.S. ban on the import of shrimp from countries that couldn’t prove that their shrimping fleets were taking measures to protect endangered sea turtles. After Malaysia made its complaint yesterday, the WTO agreed to investigate. Clinton administration trade officials insist that the U.S. has complied with the WTO ruling and that it wasn’t necessary to overhaul U.S. law but only to alter the way the law was administered. The situation could be touchy for the administration because WTO opponents have widely used the turtle issue as an example of how trade policies undermine environmental protections. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Jordan are preparing to sign a trade agreement that the Clinton administration calls “groundbreaking” because it incorporates environmental and labor safeguards within the core agreement, not as side agreements.
