some of the most intensive struggles, between those who promote ecosystem specialization the
better to produce economically valued goods and services and those who promote ecosystem diver-
sity, the better to safeguard the system’s capacity for autopoesis.
5. Trade and exchange
The above analysis provides a partial rationale for environmentalists to oppose trade liberaliza-
tion, justifying their efforts to undermine the NAFTA and WTO. Environmentalists need to
think through the implications of the potential conflict between ecosystem diversification and
economic specialization, however. The conflict be- tween the two principles does not automatically
justify the adoption of eco-mercantilist policies in which tariff and non-tariff barriers are once again
deployed by the state to minimize imports and shorten the links between producers and con-
sumers. The principle of specialization that en- ables the gains from trade to be realized from the
operation of the ‘law’ of comparative advantage is but a special case of its more general operation
within all market economies. That is, even if effective trade barriers are erected to block im-
ports, the principle of specialization will continue to operate within the state, simplifying ecosystems
in the interests of efficiency, productivity and profit.
That this is the case can be seen from the following thought-experiment. Let us suppose
that the USA were to cease all trade relations with other nations, and to adopt the autarkic policy of
producing all the goods and services desired by its citizens from within its own borders. Apart from
the massive economic dislocation such a policy would create both within and outside the borders
of the USA, the operation of the principle of specialization has only been partially challenged.
Thus, economists advising the newly elected au- tarkic US government would see nothing wrong
in recommending the continued application of the principle of specialization within the USA. In-
deed, significant environmental damage could re- sult if the degree to which the principle was
operationalized was deepened to ensure the do- mestic production of currently imported commod-
ities such as coffee, oil, tea, bananas, and timber. The problem, in short, is that the principle of
specialization embedded in the theory of interna- tional trade cuts a lot deeper than the focus on
international trade permits. The principle justifies the specialization of labour, capital, technology,
and ecosystems in order to increase exchange values over the short term without concern as to
whether such specialization is occurring as a re- sponse to domestic or international demand.
There is no recognition within economic theory that the operation of the principle of specializa-
tion might, in certain circumstances, result in disbenefits to society. The lack of internal con-
straints in the theory and the practice of econom- ics on the applicability of the principles of
generalization virtually ensures the continuation of ecosystem simplification in the interests of
those seeking more efficient means of creating use and exchange values.
6. Conclusion
