Trade tends to shift the incidence of environmental effects. Trade geographically separates production from consumption. When environmental effects are national and not cross-border in their incidence and instead are mainly associated with production, trade may shift the environmental effects around the globe. In addition, where consumption produces waste that has become an important part of the ecological cycle (Example: When the nutrients are returned to the farmer’s fields in other words when the nutrients return to the place of their origin.), trade's separation of production and consumption may disturb the ecological balance. At instances, production in one country may have environmental bad/good effects on their neighboring countries. For instance, water used for irrigation that later on drains back into the river system increases the salt content (that is previously present in the river) for users in other countries downstream. In other cases, the act of production has beneficial global environmental effects. For example, planting trees that can absorb and store carbon, would even benefit environment at large.
Merely shifting the location of environmental damage from one region/area to other would not do any good to the total world environmental damage, it often poses problems of international concern. …show more content…
The impact of trade on the environment depends mainly on the volume of trade, the share of trade in production and consumption and the environmental impact of production and consumption. Large volumes of forestry and fishery products are traded along with several agricultural commodities including cereals, sugar, fats and oils, oil-meals, cassava, meat, bananas, fresh citrus, cotton, pulses, dairy products, tea, wine, coffee and rubber. At the global level, the trade: production ratio is usually low at certain places, while for commodities such as tropical beverages and rubber which in the world trade is the main stimulus to
Merely shifting the location of environmental damage from one region/area to other would not do any good to the total world environmental damage, it often poses problems of international concern. …show more content…
The impact of trade on the environment depends mainly on the volume of trade, the share of trade in production and consumption and the environmental impact of production and consumption. Large volumes of forestry and fishery products are traded along with several agricultural commodities including cereals, sugar, fats and oils, oil-meals, cassava, meat, bananas, fresh citrus, cotton, pulses, dairy products, tea, wine, coffee and rubber. At the global level, the trade: production ratio is usually low at certain places, while for commodities such as tropical beverages and rubber which in the world trade is the main stimulus to