Environmental impacts often concerning cross national boundaries are difficult to resolve due to

conflicting laws and interests. Surely a country can have a legitimate interest in environmental
events occurring in areas outside its legal jurisdiction but they are difficult to approach due to factors
like domestic laws and sovereignty.

Furthermore, the dispute resolution panel seemed not to distinguish between environmental
resources which were not in the jurisdiction of any state such as atmospheric or oceanic resources,
and those that were within the jurisdiction of a state. The GATT secretariat made it explicitly clear
that it was “not possible under GATT rules to make access to one’s own market dependent on the
domestic environmental policies or practices of the exporting country”.