The North American free trade agreement and the North American ...

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The Environment and Free Trade in Latin America: the challenges of free
trade for Latin America from the perspective of the Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA) This document was prepared by the Inter-Agency Technical Committee
on the basis of the mandates of the Eleventh Meeting of the Forum of
Ministers of the Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean (Lima,
Peru, March 1998). The work was carried out by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) as the lead agency. The purpose of the
document is to provide the Forum with support for discussing and approving
courses of action in the sphere of the Regional Action Plan for the period
2000-2001. UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP) ASOCIACION LATINOAMERICANA DE DERECHO AMBIENTAL, A.C.
(LATIN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL LAW) The environment and free trade in Latin America: the challenges of free
trade for Latin America from the perspective of the Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA)
Dr. Raúl Brañes (Mexico) Dr. Jorge Caillaux (Peru) Dr. Marco A. González (Nicaragua) Dr. Carlos Daniel Silva (Argentina) Mexico City, February 2000 UNDP Project RLA/97/006
"Support to the Regional Programme for the Environment and Development" Table of Contents
Presentation 1 Chapter I. Introduction 3 1. Background 3 2. International trade 5 3. International trade and the environment 7 4. World consensus reached on international trade and the environment;
the Rio Conference (1992) and the Marrakesh Agreements (1994)
8 5. International trade in Latin America; intraregional trade
9 6. International trade and the environment in Latin America;
the challenges of necessary compatibility 10 7. International trade and the environment in trade agreements;
the position of Latin America 12 8. International trade and the environment at the FTAA;
the First Summit of the Americas (1992) 14 9. Summit on Sustainable Development (1996)
15 10. The San Jose Ministerial Meeting (1998)
15 11. The Second Summit of the Americas 16 12. The Toronto Ministerial Meeting (1999) 17 13. FTAA and subregional free trade agreements; international
trade and the environment in subregional agreements
18 14. Conclusions on the challenges that free trade poses to the environment
in Latin America and the Caribbean 19 Chapter II. The global legal framework: the system of the
World Trade Organization (WTO) 21 1. Introduction 21 2. The WTO Committee on Trade and Environment.
22 3. Free trade and the environment from the GATT 1947 perspective.
Basic principles and general exceptions 23 4. The relationship between free trade and the environment
from the GATT 1994 perspective 25 5. The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) of 1994
25 6. The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary
and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) of 1994 26 7. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(Agreement on TRIPS) of 1994 27 8. Dispute settlement mechanisms in GATT. The Understanding
on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU) of 1994
28 9. Enforcement of the provisions of GATT 1947. The report of the
Special Panel of GATT on the restrictions imposed by the United States
on the importation of tuna in 1991 (the "tuna-dolphin" case)
29 10. Enforcement of the GATT 1994 provisions. The Report of the
Special Panel of the GATT regarding the restrictions imposed by
the European Communities on the importation of bovine meat
and bovine meat products treated with hormones (the "meat-hormones" case)
30 11. Enforcement of the provisions of GATT 1994. The report of the
Special GATT Group with regard to the restrictions imposed by the United
States on the importation of shrimp (the "shrimp-turtle" case)
31 12. Some conclusions regarding the enforcement of the GATT provisions
33 13. The relationship between free trade and the environment from the
perspective of international environmental law
34 14. The Rio Declaration 34 15. Agenda 21 35 16. Free trade and the environment in multilateral environmental
agreements (MEA). 36 17. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 36 18. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer
(Montreal Protocol). Trade restrictions among member and non-member
countries 38 19. The Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous
Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention)
39 20. The main questions posed by the relationships between international
trade and the environment. The possible effects of trade measures
for environmental purposes on access to markets
41 21. Unilateral trade measures for environmental purposes.
42 22. Restrictions on international trade based on production processes
and methods not related to products 42 23. Trade prescriptions for environmental purposes imposed on products
within the technical standards and regulations, and barriers relating to
packaging and packing, labelling, and recycling
43 24. Restrictions derived from sanitary and phytosanitary measures
44 25. Compatibility between MEA regulations and the multilateral trade
system from a WTO perspective 45 26. Restrictions on international trade involving merchandise whose sale
is prohibited in the country of origin 46 27. Intellectual property rights 46 28. Non-Party States 47 29. The relationship between the dispute-settlement mechanisms of
the multilateral trade system and those provided for in MEAs
48 30. A balance of the work done by the WTO on the most important questions
posed regarding the relationships between international trade and the
environment 49 31. Conclusions 51 Chapter III. The North American free trade agreement and the North
American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation
57 1. Introduction 57 2. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
59 3. NAFTA's relation to the GATT 59 4. International trade and the environment under NAFTA. The Preamble to
NAFTA 60 5. NAFTA's relationsip to international environmental agreements
60 6. Market access and technical barriers to trade
61 7. Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures 63 8. International investment and the environment
64 9. Patents and the environment 66 10. General exceptions 66 11. Dispute settlement 67 12. The enforcement of dispute settlement mechanisms
67 13. The North American Agreement on Environmental
Cooperation Agreement (NAAEC) 68 14. Recognition of the sovereign right of the Parties in environmental
issues 70 15. The obligation of the Parties to provide high levels of protection
71 16. The obligation of effectively enforcing environmental laws and
regulations 71 17. The obligation regarding access to the procedures for the enforcement
of environmental law and procedural guarantees
72 18. Submissions in the event of failure to effectively enforce
environmental law 73 19. The existence of a persistent pattern of failure to effectively
enforce
environmental law. Consultation and dispute resolution
75 20. Defining the concept of environmental law
76 21. The prohibition on exporting to the territory of other Parties,
pesticides
or toxic substances whose use in their own territory is banned
77 22. The application of NAAEC in cases of submissions on failure to
effectively
enforce environmental law. The case of the cruise ship docks in Cozumel
(Mexico) 77 22. Submissions for failure to effectively enforce environmental law and
FTAA 78 23. Conclusions 79 Chapter IV. Southern Common Market: MERCOSUR 81 1. Introduction 81 2. Background 82 3. The Asuncion Treaty 83 4. Environmental Scope of the Asuncion Treaty
84 5. The Ouro Preto Protocol 85 6. Institutional Structure 85 6.1. The Common Market Council 85 6.2. The Common Market Group 86 6.3. Other Bodies 87 The MERCOSUR Trade Commission 87 The Joint Parliamentary Commission 87 The Economic-Social Advisory Forum 87 The MERCOSUR Administrative Secretariat 87 7. The development of environmental issues in MERCOSUR
88 7.1. Basic Directives Regarding Environmental Policy
88 7.2. The Taranco Declaration 90 7.3. Work Subgroup N° 6 for the Environment
90 8. The Brasilia Protocol and mechanisms for the settlement