The Interplay between Multilateral Regimes as the Relationship between Trade and Environmental Rules

The existence of world trade regime under the WTO and the environmental regime under the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol can create several conflicts. The various norms of both regimes can confirm or contradict each other. In the case of a conflict, the Dispute Settlement Mechanism of the WTO is probably to be applied. The regime interplay theory offers suitable tools for analyses of potential areas of conflict and can lead to an adoption of an appropriate regime management that would enhance the regime synergies. This paper tries to outline the differences of the trade rules and climate change regime norms in regard to the overlaps of their norms. It is based on the characteristic of both regimes and on the regime interplay analyses applied on this model case of two international regimes.