The Ministry of Environment and Forests created a Centre of Excellence in Environmental Economics (COE) at Madras School of Economics. One of the thrust areas of research is Trade and Environment. Under the programme a project on leather exports was completed in 2004. MSE was also a lead institution for studying the relationship between specific trade obligations in MEAs and the WTO Rules, funded by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The  Ministry of Environment and Forest sanctioned a three year programme on Trade and Environment in December 2006. This programme aims at providing technical inputs to Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)  particularly for the items under negotiations in the WTO and other multilateral, regional and bilateral trade agreements. The research under the programme also focuses on the impact of negotiations and contemplated  policy changes on the affected sectors. The outputs will be in the form of submissions to the ministry on selected themes, policy briefs/dissemination papers on selected topics in trade and environment and conducting of seminars/ workshops on current and emerging trade related environmental issues.