Higher tariffs and quotas on chemicals are found to be associated with an industrial base skewed toward toxic intensive activities. Moreover, countries that have pursued more outward-oriented strategies in trade are estimated to have suffered less from growth in toxicity of their industrial mix. In closing, we should note some major limitations of our results. The full story cannot be told until much better data on technology and waste-treatment choices are available. In addition, our focus has been on local effects.
Some emissions generate transnational or even global damage.
For the latter, it is the world total emissions rather than their location that ultimately matters, though the two may not be independent when some countries are better able to regulate emissions. Our focus on manufacturing production alone is not meant to deny that mining, forestry and agriculture, as well as consumption of manufactured products, can have devastating ecological effects. For the present, our data simply do not encompass these other activities. Any more general statements about the effects of economic development, environmental regulation, and trade policy must await more complete data and analysis. World Bank, 1991.