How in the world does this represent anything more than the toothless NAFTA side agreements.
Doug Henwood wrote:
> <http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/19
> 99/11/16/8.text.1>
>
> THE WHITE HOUSE
>
> Office of the Press Secretary
> ________________________________________________________________________
> For Immediate Release November 16, 1999
>
> President Clinton and Vice President Gore:
> Expanding Trade and Ensuring a Healthy Environment
>
> November 16, 1999
>
> President Clinton and Vice President Gore today outlined a strategy to
> ensure that U.S. and international efforts to expand trade are
> consistent with a high level of environmental protection worldwide and
> serve the broader goal of sustainable development. In his State of the
> Union Address earlier this year, the President urged creation of a new
> American consensus on trade, built in part on an effort to "level up"
> environmental protections as international trade and investment rules
> are liberalized. The policy initiatives announced today will help
> further this goal by systematically integrating environmental
> considerations into the development of US trade policy, staking out US
> policy positions on key environmental issues before the World Trade
> Organization, and supporting complementary steps to improve
> international environmental practices and standards, including the
> provision of technical and financial assistance to help developing
> countries design and implement strong domestic environmental
> protections.
>
> The U.S. and the WTO: Putting a Human Face on the Global Economy. As
> part of his agenda for the new round of global trade negotiations set to
> be launched in Seattle, Washington later this month, the President has
> proposed broadening participation in the benefits of trade among and
> within nations in part by addressing key environmental and labor
> concerns. Today, the President elaborated on the environmental aspects
> of his appeal for a human face to be put on the global economy by:
>
> 1) Signing an Executive Order to Require Environmental Reviews of
> Proposed Trade Agreements. The President today signed an Executive
> Order requiring careful assessment and consideration of the
> environmental impacts of trade agreements, including through detailed
> written reviews of major, environmentally significant trade agreements.
> The Executive Order for the first time formally institutionalizes
> procedures to ensure the timely consideration of environmental issues in
> the development of U.S. positions for trade negotiations. It represents
> a major development in the effort to integrate and balance the twin U.S.
> objectives of promoting economic growth through expanded trade and
> sustainable development through strong domestic environmental
> protections. Specifically, the Executive Order:
>
> o Requires written environmental reviews of comprehensive multilateral
> trade rounds, bilateral or plurilateral free trade agreements, major
> trade liberalization agreements in natural resource sectors, and other
> agreements that may have significant, reasonably foreseeable
> environmental effects.
>
> o Requires that reviews be undertaken early enough in the process to
> help shape negotiating positions.
>
> o Requires public notice when a review begins; opportunity for input
> from outside experts and the public; and public release of the findings.
>
> o Requires that reviews focus primarily on environmental impacts in
> the United States and, as appropriate, also examine international and
> global impacts.
>
> o Directs the United States Trade Representative and Chair of the
> White House Council on Environmental Quality to oversee implementation
> of the Order in consultation with economic, environmental and foreign
> policy agencies.
>
> 2) Issuing a White House Declaration of Environmental Trade Policy
> Principles to Guide U.S. Negotiators and Ensure That the Work of the
> WTO Is Supportive of Sustainable Development. The WTO Charter
> explicitly recognizes sustainable development as a fundamental goal.
> The President today issued a White House Policy Declaration on
> Environment and Trade outlining a set of principles to guide U.S.
> negotiators' efforts to ensure that the WTO fulfills this part of its
> mission. In particular, the Policy Declaration pledges the United
> States to pursue trade liberalization in the new round of trade
> negotiations in a manner that is supportive of our
> commitment to high levels of protection for the environment by:
>
> o Promoting reform of the WTO, notably its dispute settlement
> procedures, to improve their transparency and openness to public
> participation.
>
> o Strengthening cooperation between the WTO and other international
> organizations, particularly the United Nations Environment Program, with
> respect to environmental matters.
>
> o Identifying and pursuing "win-win" opportunities where opening
> markets and reducing or eliminating trade distortions can yield direct
> environmental benefits, such as by reducing fish and agricultural
> subsidies.
>
> o Stating the U.S. view that the WTO broadly accommodates trade
> measures included in multilateral environmental agreements when they are
> carefully tailored and appropriately applied, such as in the Convention
> on International Trade in Endangered Species and the Montreal Protocol
> with respect to ozone-depleting chemicals.
>
> o Ensuring that trade rules are supportive of and do not undermine our
> ability to maintain and enforce fully our environmental laws by
> staking out U.S. positions on issues such as the WTO's deference to
> national regulatory authorities, WTO members' rights to determine
> whether to accept another member's regulations as equivalent to its
> own, trade measures based on processes and production methods (PPMs),
> Ecolabeling, and Precaution.
>
> o Ensuring the appropriate inclusion on U.S. trade negotiation teams
> of environmental, health and safety officials, and encouraging our
> trading partners to do likewise.
>
> o Taking fully into account environmental implications throughout the
> course of the negotiations, including by performing a written
> environmental review of the new WTO round.
>
> 3) Promoting Improved Environmental Practices in Developing Countries
> Through Technical Assistance to Strengthen Their Environmental
> Institutions. The Administration today released a survey of U.S.
> Government environmental capacity-building efforts in developing
> countries, underscoring its commitment to the pursuit of sustainable
> development and high levels of global environmental protection,
> including through means extending beyond trade policy. The United
> States is working actively to ensure that developing countries have
> the capacity to address environmental management issues as they
> integrate into the world economy. We believe the absence of
> environmental regulatory and management capacity can undermine
> long-term economic development and threaten ecological systems
> essential to sustainable development, thereby limiting the contribution
> to broad living standards from expanded trade and economic growth.
> U.S. capacity building activities involve several agencies, including
> the U.S. Agency for International Development, Agriculture Department,
> Environmental Protection Agency, State Department, Justice Department,
> Department of the Interior, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
> Administration, and the Department of Energy. They fall into three
> broad categories:
>
> a) Promoting integrated policies in developing countries to protect the
> environment while raising social and economic standards:
>
> o Integrating economic, social, and environmental objectives into a
> mutually supportive policy framework.
>
> o Strengthening legal, regulatory, and judicial policies and
> procedures as they relate to environmental management.
>
> b) Promoting environmentally sustainable international trade and
> investment liberalization;
>
> o Building institutional capacity in natural resources management and
> conservation.
>
> o Enhancing the ability of countries to understand, participate in,
> and implement the provisions of international institutional frameworks,
> such as multilateral environmental arrangements and international trade
> agreements.
>
> o Improving the environmental performance of international financial
> institutions and export credit agencies.
>
> c) Assessing and addressing environmental impacts of trade and
> investment liberalization:
>
> o Enhancing stakeholder understanding of and participation in the
> identification and resolution of trade, investment, and environmental
> conflicts.
>
> o Promoting transparent and open decision-making processes and
> strengthening of the capacity of all segments of civil society to
> participate in a meaningful way in decisions that affect their lives.
>
> 4) Providing International Leadership on the Environment. Americans
> today enjoy the strongest economy and cleanest environment in a
> generation, and the Clinton Administration is working with the
> international community to promote the same objectives around the globe.
> The United States has played a critical role in international
> efforts -- through multilateral environmental treaties and other
> means -- to protect endangered species, phase out highly toxic
> chemicals, restore fisheries, and address global warming. In addition,
> the United States has applied the highest environmental standards to
> its overseas lending and development assistance; promoted similar
> efforts at the World Bank and other multilateral institutions; and led
> efforts to build environmental safeguards into trade pacts like the
> North America Free Trade Agreement.
>
> ###
--
Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901