TRADE-ENVIRONMENT: NAFTA Under Fire on Environment Policy

By Paul Weinberg Reprint | | Print |

Paul Weinberg

TORONTO, Oct 25 1997 (IPS) - Further moves by the North American Free Agreement (NAFTA) nations to develop a trade framework to protect the environment appear doomed, according to environmentalists.

“The real game is in other forums like the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) currently being negotiated among the developed countries in the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development,” says Steve Shrybman, executive director of the Vancouver-based West Coast Environmental Law Association.

He describes the NAFTA trade pact, linking Canada, Mexico and the United States – with its emphasis on investor rights – as a “woeful” model for any proposed larger agreement.

“NAFTA is bad enough, but MAI is worse,” Shrybman says.

His comments came after a two-day meeting in Montreal between Canadian environment minister Christine Stewart, Mexican Secretary of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries Julia Carabias and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner. They announced further a study of trade and environment by the Commission for Environmental Co-operation (CEC), the body that governs the environmental side agreement for NAFTA.

An official statement said the framework would have the following objectives:

– To encourage a stror