Oldie but a good article:
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/ftaa/883.html>snip
The Bush administration seems unwilling to see the white elephant in its White House living room. Turning a blind eye on the upcoming Kyoto Protocol and continuing unilateral compromises in the Doha Free Trade agreement, Bush and Co. won't admit that the true culprit to environment degradation, as well as the regression in America's standard of living, loss in manufacturing jobs, growing national debt, and record trade deficits is due to international free trade. "Competitive protectionism is a proven idea with a lot of success. Free trade is historically a relatively new idea with a lot of failure," said Dr. Ravi Batra , international economist, in his book, The Myth of Free Trade. "Free trade has done to the us what Hitler and imperial Japan could not do during the war," he said.
Wasteful investment from intra industry trade and raw materials trade are crippling world economies in many ways. Batra claims together they represent 90 percent of global commerce, yet have no rational economic justification behind them. Since world trade has soared faster than economic activity, trade is a bigger polluter than industrialization-in spite of fuel efficiency. Trade in energy intensity industries reaches far above that of GNP of America and most nations, and continues to rise. Being green doesn't sell as pollution taxes on domestic trans nationals would further put them at a disadvantage in global markets and governments don't want to inhibit world trade, corporate profits and growth.
Destroying the world's resources unnecessarily, free trade increases pollution, and creates higher energy prices, while risking higher global rates of economic contagion (Asian Contagion, Russia and Argentina debt default), and international vulnerability to economic shocks like the OPEC crisis of 1973 or 1979. "By far international trade comes out as the worst villain in the destruction of the environment....Yet about 60 percent of international trade today is of the intra industry variety-another 30% in raw materials...The cost of transporting trade worldwide equals most countries GNPs...(indeed,) air freight fuel consumption almost tripled in just two decades from 1970-1990, emitting millions of tons of nitrogen oxides," said Batra.
Indeed, the oil trade is linked to the trade in other goods. "If intra industry trade were eliminated and countries manufactured and produced from their own raw materials, global oil demand would plummet. There would be no need to transport so many goods, materials, and oil across the seas. Global energy prices would fall generating massive growth around the world. Not only would the environment benefit, production costs would also decline thanks to declining energy prices...Few people realize that international trade is the worst polluter among all economist activities," said Batra.
Being the largest energy consumer and polluter in the world the US had a special responsibility to clean up the environment. Raising average tariffs to 40% would reduce pollution, while promoting competitive protectionism at home and eliminating wasteful intra industry trade.
Not only is free trade our biggest job killer, it is also our biggest polluter.