Environmental Comparrison between USA and Mexico

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT TRADE BETWEEN UNITED STATES AND MEXICO

Global business environment is increasingly being determined by prevailing environmental concerns . Trade regulations between countries are being benchmarked on the decisions made on environmental policy Even though there exists an underlying inadequacy in negotiating international trade agreements in conjunction with multilateral environment agreements , formulation of trade policy has been forced to move hand in hand with requisite environment policy creating a situation that only promotes a complimentary of the policies for sustainable economic development

In the same fray is the

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA NAFTA which includes several guidelines that detail environmental related provisions . The accord as agreed provides trilateral cooperation on matters concerning the environment and it also contains specific provisions that seek to pressurize members to enforce environmental law . The United States and Mexico has also instituted a bilateral establishment called the Boarder Environment Cooperation Commission . Together with the North American Development Bank communities around the boarder areas are financed to enable them complete environment infrastructure projects . Despite the agreement these are still ongoing discussions on NAFTA 's possible environment effect , implementation of pending NAFTA 's provisions and b funding modalities (may Tinmann , 2000

During the negotiations carried out in the context of liberalizing investment and trade rules between the two countries , environmental issues arose due to the existence of a more stringent standards on one country while the other country had only weak environmental protection measures . Such differences could be challenged with notable success as non tariff barriers that only serve to stifle trade between the two countries . Another issue was whether the existence of weaker environment protection measures on one side could created an unfair competitive advantage and hence encourage businesses to relocate production to areas that are least regulated in terms of environmental protection measures . Strict environmental regulations on the United States soil pose a considerable non tariff trade barrier hence the requirement for the need of harmonization of environmental provisions health and safety standards . Relocation of industries to least environmentally regulated zones created a new challenge with increasing population . To offset this a mechanism had to be put in place to regulate all b environmental projects

Under the auspices of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT ) on which NAFTA operates new environmental issues are arising . In 1991 a dispute arose after the United States banned importations of tuna as Mexico had violated GATT 's trade rules . The ban imposed under the Us Marine Mammal Protection Act sought to limit the killing or the causing of serious injury to dolphins together with other marine animals in the course of commercial fishing . Mexico contested the ban but the court was not lifted . Following the hearings of the case it was proposed that congress would lift the ban temporarily and Canada made a 5 year moratorium commitment that stated on March 1 , 1994

Presently proposed changes on key environmental provisions that affect trade are focusing on non tariff barriers and the expansion on...