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A similar debate has surrounded the question of whether and how to link trade rules with efforts to improve environmental protection. Environmentalists and others argue that increased trade, if not properly regulated, can cause environmental damage. They believe that countries will do one of the following:
- Reduce or fail to enforce their own environmental protections to attract foreign investors seeking lower-cost production sites; or
- Invalidate existing national laws or regulations designed to protect the environment; or
- Undermine multilateral efforts to address environmental problems when they conflict with the existing agreements and rules of the international trading system. Like the labor advocates, some environmentalists endorse new trade agreements with provisions, backed by the threat of trade sanctions, which prohibit countries from lowering their environmental protections to attract trade or investment.
The World Wildlife Fund and the National Wildlife Federation are two of the major environmental groups that back such measures. Opponents of these measures argue that increased trade and the economic growth it stimulates will have long-term consequences for the environment. They also argue that trade liberalization can simultaneously expand trade and improve environmental conditions in certain economic sectors, such as fisheries, in which many countries subsidize environmentally harmful levels of production to increase their international trade.
To learn more about the concerns about trade and the environment, take a look at Globalization101.org’s Environment Issue Brief.
To learn more about NAFTA and environmental standards, click here.
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