Privatizing conditions of production: Trade agreements as neoliberal environmental governance

In this chapter and in the original, more detailed version in Geoforum, I

argue that recent multilateral trade agreements, particularly the sweeping new protections they provide for investors, are redefining property rights

and reshaping environmental governance in ways that are central to the

neoliberalization of environmental governance. My central argument is that

in addition to furthering the centuries-long process of the enclosure of nature

under capitalism, the neoliberal agenda of NAFTA (the North American Free

Trade Agreement) and similar trade agreements also involves something new:

the privatization, or primitive accumulation, of conditions of production.