ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the general concerns found in the debates over globalisation and trade liberalisation and focuses on the specific environmental concerns related to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It reviews empirical evidence on the environmental effects of NAFTA and attempts to determine whether NAFTA has been 'good' or 'bad' for the environment. The task of disentangling observations about average or aggregate levels of either environmental or economic change from particular areas of change—although hardly new to either environmental or economic policy—has been unfamiliar to the trade-environment debate. Trade rules intended to secure market access and ensure fairness in competition can undermine—and appear already to have done so—some specific regulations governing the environment, human health, and food safety. The effects of NAFTA on the sustainable management of renewable resources also appear mixed, and depend on the resource examined.
