Free Trade Agreements and the Environment

Defenders opposes free trade agreements (FTAs) that enable unsustainable exploitation of wildlife and threaten other environmental damage. Defenders’ recent trade work has focused on opposing free trade agreements with Peru and Panama proposed by the Administration unless they include strong assurances that the resulting liberalized trade will not decimate wildlife and plants.

The tensions between trade and the environment are among the most significant threats to ecological sustainability facing the U.S. and the world. The debate over the ever increasing expansion of trade and the consequent environmental impacts involves an array of trade bodies such as the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement and has negatively affected the ability of countries to protect their environments through both national laws and international agreements. The trade-environment debate spans a wide range of issues including forests, fisheries, climate change, agriculture, and invasive alien species.

Defenders has long been active in this area, starting with our work on trade measures to prevent the incidental catching of dolphins during tuna fishing operations and to promote the “dolphin safe" label in the U.S. Subsequent advocacy aimed at the trade in softwood lumber between the U.S. and Canada and, more broadly, on the relationship between the international trade regime and environmental treaties.

The latest version of the proposed Peru/US Free Trade Agreement (FTA), on which Defenders has worked extensively because of Peru’s massive mahogany exports to the U.S., is not perfect. Nevertheless, it marks a significant and important break with past U.S. trade policy.

It includes a provision requiring Peru to improve its forestry laws in general, and its laws governing the harvest and export of mahogany in particular. In addition, a new enforcement provision would allow the U.S. to audit Peruvian mahogany exporters to ensure they are complying with all applicable laws. It also includes a requirement for both Parties to enforce their obligations under 7 major multilateral environmental agreements. Defenders supported inclusion of these unprecedented environmental provisions, but we will continue to monitor the precise language of the final proposed free trade agreement.