Environmental Implications Of Nafta On North America

Essay, Research Paper

The Environmental Implications of

The NAFTA on North America

By

Jonathan Eidse

Political Science 101, s02

Prof. G. McDougal

November 18, 1998

Eidse 1

Introduction

Prior to 1994, trade and the environment were two entirely separate issues. There were no environmental regulations found in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) or in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Upon the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) environmental concerns of North America as a whole were for the first time provided within a side agreement to the NAFTA. Finally there is a trade agreement that recognizes the concerns of North American citizens to maintain a healthy, sustainable environment, where the damaging effects of free trade could be minimized. The NAFTA entailed provisions for stricter environmental regulations on all of North America, and if a country did not abide by these regulations they would be accountable to a multinational panel and receive a proper penalty. In theory the NAFTA would be entirely beneficial to Mexico, the US, and to Canada, but due to low enforcement of the regulations, the opening of foreign resource markets along with several other implications has proved the NAFTA is far from ideal.

Environmental Regulations of NAFTA and their Effects

Previous trade agreements with our southern trading partners have been solely based on economic growth, but with the inclusion of and environmental side agreement to the NAFTA, environmental restoration was now a key factor. Proponents of this side agreement praised the NAFTA for its sensitivity to the pressing environmental concerns shared by Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Environmental regulations would be

Eidse 2

set in place for North America as a whole, eventually cleaning up our environment on a huge scale. Opponents of the NAFTA, however, were not convinced that the environmental regulations set in the NAFTA would improve the environment throughout North America. They saw that Mexico’s environmental regulations were less strict and those that were in place were loosely enforced. American industries would see Mexico as a pollution haven where they could set up less environmentally sound facilities to increase overall profit. Therefore, the NAFTA was seen as beneficial to the American environment at the expense of that of Mexico’s. A question that members of the NAFTA panel must ask themselves is “…is it economically efficient and morally justifiable for agents to satisfy their demand for high environmental standards by allowing others to despoil their environment.” (Kaufmann, par. 45).

Another fear of those opposed to the NAFTA was that environmental regulations already in place would deteriorate due to business competition. As Mexico has the lowest environmental regulations, Mexican businesses have an unfair advantage over Canadian and US markets as they can produce goods at a much lower price. This advantage would force the American and Canadian businesses to circumvent their local regulations to remain competitive in their respective markets, eventually leading to the decay of present environmental regulations. Mexican businesses are also faced with a competitive disadvantage due to the fact that in an open market, local businesses will “…be forced to compete with more technologically sophisticated firms from richer countries and, therefore, limit investments in pollution control equipment in order to keep

Eidse 3

their costs low”(Husted, par. 6). This problem was not entirely overlooked in the construction of the NAFTA as it entailed a provision warning governments against dropping regulations; unfortunately the provision establishes no requirements and cannot be grounds for an official complaint. Although the environmental regulations that the NAFTA has been set to encourage are a major step forward, lack of enforcement and uniformity amidst the three nations has greatly reduced their effectiveness at achieving a greener North America.

Effects of Combining Trade and Environment

When the NAFTA was initially proposed, no environmental side agreement was entailed. Environmental Non-Government Organizations (ENGOs) such as Green Peace, Sierra Club, and Friends of the Earth saw that the effect of freer trade on the environment was indeed noteworthy, and thus proposed that an environmental side agreement was necessary to minimize the damage to the Earth. Aside from their immediate environmental concerns, the ENGOs saw that the NAFTA could supply them with the means to expand their influence outside their nation’s borders. With this new trade agreement it was now possible to take environmental restoration to a global level.

Unfortunately, this international platform also gave the government the ability to make its own ideals felt abroad, which in many cases harmed foreign countries. Through the NAFTA the US would have the right to set trade sanctions and embargos on nations that did not comply with their own environmental regulations. The NAFTA, in effect, provides a mechanism to push American ideals down the throats of foreign countries. I

Eidse 4

say American ideals and do not include those of Canadian or Mexican because the US has the strictest and most comprehensive envir

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать