FTA Trade Provisions

Abstract

This chapter lists and discuses the types and variations of environmental provisions contained in regional and bilateral free-trade agreements that have been negotiated in the years since NAFTA. Both will be referred to as free trade agreements (FTA) with RTA reserved for regional agreements — that is, those involving three or more countries in a specific geographic area. These provisions vary widely, from as little as a line or two in the preamble or an objective, inclusion as an exception to prohibited trade restrictions, provisions in one or more chapters or sections of the agreement (such as the investment chapter), a separate environmental chapter, or a separate environmental agreement that accompanies the trade agreement. The content of this chapter is based on analyses of FTAs in publications by Chaytor (2009), Colyer (2003a and b, 2004, 2006a, 2008, 2010), the OECD (2007), Less and Kim (2008), Less and Gigli (2008), Gigli (2009), Gallagher and Serrat (2010) and Bourgeois et al. (2007), as well as the several FTAs with environmental provisions and other relevant references. More detailed information on the various types of provisions and their respective FTAs are given in Chapters 7–10. Quotes from specific trade agreements are taken from the agreements available through the WTO’s RTA database or the OAS’s SICE database.