IT WAS the cathartic moment of the World Summit. In the early hours of Monday morning, dozens of environment ministers from round the world clambered over their desks in a rush to hug one another. Outside in the corridors a cheer went up as the news broke. Delegates had thrown out a sentence in the summit’s final resolution that would have ceded to the World Trade Organization the final say in any conflict between free trade and environmental protection.
It doesn’t sound much. Nothing agreed in Johannesburg is binding on anyone. The WTO will no doubt continue to presume that it is the world court on…
