The Environment and NAFTA: Understanding And Implementing The New Continental Law [Hardcover]

Pierre-Marc Johnson (Author), Andre Beaulieu (Author), Victor Lichtinger (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1995

In The Environment and NAFTA, two internationally known experts discuss both law and policy as they examine the environmental implications of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the related North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). Pierre Marc Johnson and Andre Beaulieu consider the context in which those implications were brought to the negotiating table, the legal mechanism established to address them, and the original trilateral institution set up to maintain a continent-wide level of environmental cooperation. The authors explain how NAFTA and its interaction with NAAEC might take place and how that will affect trade policy and practices, environmental protection efforts, and the relationships between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In addition, they consider the environmental features of NAFTA as part of the "social agenda" of trade - the environmental, labor, and broad human rights issues that are coming to play an increasing role in the development of international agreements. The manner in which NAFTA parties have confronted that challenge provides valuable insight into the future of regional and international cooperation.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 430 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559634677
• ISBN-13: 978-1559634670
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,910,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting description of melding environment & trade, August 23, 1998

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[e-mail] (Münster, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Environment and NAFTA: Understanding And Implementing The New Continental Law (Paperback)

The authors have written a book that traces historically the "greening" of NAFTA. They emphasize the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) both in the negotiation of NAFTA and in future monitoring and enforcement. The authors make predictions about the environmental effects of NAFTA's implementation, but provide no discussion of its actual effects as the data were only beginning to be collected as the book went to press.

The book's orientation on environmental issues tends to be political rather than economic or legal. At the international level, this is understandable and even necessary. As the authors note, "in the international context, the boundaries between law and policy remain very porous and each informs the other." The emphasis on politics rather than law nevertheless disappoints, since the title of this otherwise excellent book promises an "understanding of the new continental law." Of course the authors do discuss knotty "legal" issues that arise under NAFTA and the NAAEC. For example, "What Is an Environmental Law?" is the title of Chapter 8, one of the chapters discussing the enforcement provisions of NAFTA.

From a legal standpoint, what is missing from the book is an exposition of the background of the international law of the environment so that the reader will understand how NAFTA would work in the absence of its environmental side-agreement. This is the crux of concerns about "pollution havens as investment magnets," also known under the catchwords "exporting pollution" or "race to the bottom." Should environmental standards be imposed on a trading partner under a trade agreement? In the absence of an agreement on environmental standards, the international law of the environment only forbids a state from causing substantial damage to the territory of other states, or to areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction; it does not prevent a state from exploiting and even recklessly depleting its own resources.

The authors' conclusions are presented in Part V. Here one wishes that the authors would abandon their statesmanlike impartiality and their "wait-and-see" attitude and take a firm stand on at least some of the issues. Nonetheless, Johnson and Beaulieu do not break character even in stating their conclusions. For example, the authors refer to the omission of some environmental arguments that support integration of liberalized trade with environmental protection as "not reassuring." An opportunity to provide improved market access for environmentally friendly products "was probably missed." The enforcement provisions are "somewhat half-hearted," and the economic rationality of the trade requirement in NAAEC's dispute settlement procedure "remains in question." Despite this shortcoming, this is an interesting and readable book the strength of which lies in describing, rather than influencing, the important political process of melding environmental protection with the liberalization of trade.

For further critique and analysis, see Professor Lundmark's review at 24 Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 477. For further reading, see Lundmark and McNeece, State and Local Government Participation in Solving Environmental Problems at the U.S.-Mexican Border, 3 Journal of Environmental Law & Practice 37 (1995).