NAFTA and Sustainable Development History, Experience, and Prospects for Reform

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its companion agreement, the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), provide important and often underappreciated protection for the environmental laws of the Party states: Canada, Mexico, and the United States. On the twentieth anniversary of NAFTA's ratification, this book assesses the current state of environmental protection under those agreements. Bringing together scholars, practitioners, and regulators from all three Party states, it outlines the scope and process of NAFTA and NAAEC, their impact on specific environmental issues, and paths to reform. It includes analyses of the impact of the agreements on such matters as bioengineered crops in Mexico, assessment of marine environmental effects, potential lessons for China, climate change, and indigenous rights. Together, the chapters of this book represent an important contribution to the global conversation concerning international trade agreements and sustainable development.

Introduction. NAFTA and sustainable development L. Kinvin Wroth and Hoi L. Kong; Part I. Process – NAFTA and NAAEC: 1. Forgotten promises: neglected environmental provisions of the NAFTA and the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation Geoffrey Garver; 2. Should citizens expect procedural justice in nonadversarial processes? Spotlighting the regression of the citizen submission process from NAAEC to CAFTA-DR Giselle Davidian; 3. Choosing the right whistle: the development of the concept of environmental law under the citizen submissions process Paolo Solano; 4. Pending proceedings in the new guidelines for submissions on enforcement matters: an improved regression? Montserrat Rovalo; 5. Form over substance: procedural hurdles to the NAAEC citizen submission process Leslie Welts; Part II. Specific Environmental Issues under NAFTA and NAAEC: 6. Downward harmonization: Mexico's industrial livestock revolution Pamela Vesilind; 7. Agricultural biotechnology and NAFTA: analyzing the impacts of US and Canadian policies on Mexico's environment and agriculture Laurie Beyranevand; 8. Assessing assessments of NAFTA's marine environment: the commission for environmental cooperation meets the World Ocean Assessment Betsy Baker; 9. Sustainable development, NAFTA, and water Katia Opalka; 10. Indigenous peoples in North America: bridging the trade and environment gap to ensure sustainability under NAFTA and NAAEC Nicole Schabus; 11. Climate change, sustainable development, and NAFTA: regional policy harmonization as a basis for sustainable development Freedom-Kai Phillips; 12. The principle of public participation in NAFTA chapter 11 disputes Avidan Kent; 13. Preventing environmental deterioration from international trade and investment: how China can learn from NAFTA's experience to strengthen domestic environmental governance and ensure sustainable development Danni Liang and Jingjing Liu; Part III. Proposals for Reform and Lessons Going Forward: 14. Pathways of influence in the NAFTA regime and their implications for domestic environmental policy-making in North America Sébastien Jodoin; 15. The citizen submissions process in the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation: theory and practice in deliberative democratic institutional design for transnational institutions Hoi L. Kong; 16. Assessing ENGO influence in North American environmental politics: the double grid framework Raul Pacheco-Vega.

This book assesses the current state of environmental protection under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Authors from all three member nations - Canada, Mexico, and the United States - analyze the agreements' impact on such issues as bioengineered crops, water policy, climate change, and indigenous rights.

Hoi L. Kong is an associate professor at McGill University's Faculty of Law. He has been a visiting professor at universities in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, and Switzerland. From 2002 to 2003, he was law clerk to Justices Marie Deschamps and Claire L'Heureux Dubé at the Supreme Court of Canada.
L. Kinvin Wroth is a professor of law and former President and Dean of Vermont Law School. He is an expert in land use law, marine law, procedure, legal history, and professional conduct. His book, Legal Papers of John Adams (2007), was awarded the American Historical Association's Littleton-Griswold prize. He received his LL.B. from Harvard University, Massachusetts.