How well is North America dealing with trade and environment after 20 years of NAFTA ?
Montreal, 24 July 2013 — January 2014 will mark 20 years since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its environmental side agreement, the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), went into effect.
To mark the occasion, the CEC's Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) has launched a call for information and comments on the first 20 years of NAFTA and the NAAEC. Your comments will inform an important public debate at a 20th anniversary discussion of the NAAEC taking place 17–18 October 2013, in Washington, DC. Trade and environment experts, including activists, government officials and academics, will reflect on the successes and shortcomings of the agreement, and how or whether trade liberalization can continue to coexist with strong environmental protection.
The NAAEC was signed and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) created in response to concerns that free trade might harm the environment by encouraging the creation of pollution havens because of lax environmental standards or ineffective environmental law enforcement. With new free trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), in negotiation all around the globe, there is no better time to reflect on the ideas that led to the creation of the CEC in 1994, considered by many as the first time international trading partners addressed concerns that free trade might harm the environment.
The CEC's Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC), which provides advice to the federal-level environment ministers in Canada, Mexico and the US, would like to hear from the North American public about their experiences, insights, opinions and perspectives on the following important questions related to free trade and the environment:
- What are the environmental successes of the NAAEC and NAFTA? Where have the provisions of those agreements fallen short? And where they have, does the problem lie in the agreements themselves or in their implementation?
- Is the CEC achieving the goals for which it was created? Are those goals adequate in face of ongoing environmental challenges in North America?
- Have the NAAEC and the environmental provisions of NAFTA adequately addressed environmental concerns related to free trade in North America?
- How could implementation of the NAAEC and the environmental provisions of NAFTA be improved?
- Are there important topics the CEC has failed to tackle over the past 20 years?
In light of the past 20 years, on what priorities should the CEC focus in the next 10 years and beyond?
JPAC invites written contributions of information and comments addressing one or more of these questions, or providing other information relevant to the first 20 years of NAFTA and the NAAEC, to be sent to: jpac@cec.org, or submitted online here. The due date for contributions is 30 August 2013.
http://www.cec.org/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=25600&SiteNodeID=655
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Don’t let Canada become a NAFTA Pollution Haven
West Coast Environmental Law has submitted a letter to the CEC summarizing its concerns over these federal environmental law changes and suggesting ways for the CEC to better ensure Canada lives up to its obligations under the NAAEC. Some ideas that we’re proposing include:
- The NAAEC should be amended to include specific commitments related to its objective of “promoting transparency and public participation in the development of environmental laws, regulations and policies.” Laws cannot be based on meetings with industry lobbyists behind closed doors.
- The CEC needs to have a stronger role in evaluating changes to environmental laws and notifying the public of weakened environmental laws;
- The NAAEC should include specific commitments related to procedural and substantive rights to participate in decision-making (for example through environmental assessments);
- There need to be economic consequences for intentionally weakening environmental laws in order to give industry a competitive advantage; and
- While NAAEC allows the public to complain about a failure to enforce environmental laws, the role of the public, and the CEC, in evaluating changes to the law that weaken environmental protection should be strengthened.
If you want your voice heard, you also need to write to the CEC with your comments. We have an email form embedded in this post, below, which will send your message to the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the CEC and to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Simply fill in your name and email address, make any modifications to our suggested text that you like, and click send. Or, if you want to make your submissions outside of our website, email your comments to the CEC at jpac@cec.org. The deadline for submissions is August 30th, 2013.
More, as well as the form letter found at: http://wcel.org/nafta
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