Greening the Americas : NAFTA's Lessons for Hemispheric Trade

The interaction of international trade and the environment has been a topic of debate since the early 1990s.

Many environmentalists complain that trade liberalization can run roughshod over efforts to control pollution and manage natural resources, advocates of free trade see green groups as protectionist.

Arguing that attention to environmental issues is vital for realizing the potential economic benefits of international trade, this book offers an environmental agenda for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) that aims to ensure that economic integration in the Western Hemisphere proceeds in an environmentally sustainable and politically sensible manner.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) attempted to address environmental concerns both in its text and through a "parallel agreement", the North American Agreement for Environmental Cooperation. "Greening the Americas" reviews the history of NAFTA's environmental negotiations and explores the treaty's economic and environmental impact, drawing lessons that can be applied to the ongoing FTAA negotiations. It critiques the environmental elements of the NAFTA model and examines their relevance to Latin America, highlighting those elements that should be included in future agreements and those that should be dropped.

In particular, it explores Latin American countries' resistance to the linkage of trade and the environment and their resentment of the perceived heavy-handedness of the United States in NAFTA environmental negotiations.