NAFTA'S SIDE AGREEMENT ON THE ENVIRONMENT
This paper will address how NAFTA's Side Agreement on the Environment was created. The discussion will explain how the environmental programs help to improve the infrastructure of NAFTA. Also, this paper will analyze three aspects of the Side Agreement: (1) the general principles, objectives and commitments, (2) the general structure and operation of the new Commission for Environmental Cooperation, and (3) the function and scope of the dispute settlement system. Moreover, the paper will examine some of the problems that the Side Agreement is intended to address, including the issues raised by the Tuna/Dolphin cases.
The Conflict Between International Trade Regulation and Environmental Protection
Environmentalists are increasingly concerned about the need to establish an environmental protection framework to address environmental issues on a global scale. Currently, no such international agency or regime exists. For the most part, international environmental concerns are addressed domestically by individual nations. Also, unilateral measures taken by the contracting parties to the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to protect the environment either inside or outside of their territories often lead to a direct conflict with GATT obligations. For instance, several cases including two recent decisions by GATT dispute resolution panels hearing complaints over the United States restrictions on imports of tuna (hereinafter referred to as Tuna/Dolphin #1 (GATT, 1991, p. 155) and Tuna/Dolphin #2 (GATT, 1994, p. 839)) have declared that such unilateral measures are contrary to GATT's principles of free trade. Where environmental problems have been addressed on a global scale, problems still exist. The world's current multilateral environmental treaties often call for trade sanctions as an enforcement mechanism (Basel, 1989, p. 649). The enforcement provisions of these...