Racing to the Bottom Trade, Environmental Governance by Aseem Prakash and Matthew Potoski - Article Example

The dependent variable, on the other hand can be defined as the observed result, of the independent variable. The voluntary environmental regulations of ISO 14001 in this research can be defined as the dependent variable. The research seeks to define how the independent variable has had a negative or positive impact on the adoption of ISO 14001 environmental regulations (dependent variable). HYPOTHESIS The hypothesis formulated in this report is that, involvement in international trade has caused many international firms to adopt the voluntary ISO 14001 regulations.

The other hypothesis is that adoption rates are lower in export dependent countries than in import dependent countries. This hypothesis has come about due to some critiques believe that these ISO 14001 regulations have been adopted to take environmental action to an international level. This research aims at proving this hypothesis. FINDINGS Different governments have different environmental assessment requirements for organizations. Within these governments, there are some whose environmental policies seem to be lax.

International trade with the organizations from nations having lax environmental standards becomes significantly affected as other organizations seem to avoid trading with them. The international organization for standardization has created a much accepted level of international standards. The standards of ISO are applied to firms irrespective of the country of origin and are independent of the local regulations. The finding of this report is that many firms, seeking to undertake international trade, have resorted into adopting the ISO 14001 regulations together with the local regulations.

The research concludes that there are specific aspects of this regulation which make these firms to adopt it, and it is not due to international pressure. The regulation seems to favor international trade EVIDENCE (QUANTIT & QUALITATIVE) The survey conducted in 108 countries, which has, the ISO 14001 certified facilities provides evidence in this research. The information was categorized on the international trade structure which a country mainly depended on. There are those that are export dependent and others import dependent.

The research also seeks to define whether the importing county’s regulations have any effect on the exporting c country’s level in adopting these regulations. For the purposes of this research, the other variables which may affect international trade are entirely ignored. The measure applied is that of adoption of the ISO 14001 regulations. MAJOR THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK (LIBERAL, INSTITUTIONAL The major theoretical framework is the adoption of this regulation is favorable to international trade than other regulations.

The effects of other controllable variables like international and domestic controls seem to be over come by this regulatory policy. COUNTERARGUMENTS There are many arguments aroused by this research. Globalization critiques argue that the adoption of ISO 14001 regulation necessitated by international trade undermines the set government regulation. On the other hand, those in support of globalization argue that the governments should try and standardize their environmental regulation for the purpose of international trade.

They further argue that due to the discrepancies in government policies, only the ISO 14001 regulations can be applied internationally in a standard way. They argue