ABSTRACT
Scott Vaughan, an official with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, noted that countries with growing economies, like Brazil, have been developing more equitable investment models with improved dispute resolution systems, mechanisms that could become part of North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations (NAFTA) and other future trade agreements. Under a clause in NAFTA known as the energy proportionality rule, Canada is required to maintain or increase its rate of energy exports to the United States in perpetuity. Groups like Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment have taken up that cause by demanding NAFTA renegotiations include health, environmental, societal and cultural impact assessments. Treat also points out that all sorts of government labeling requirements are likely to be challenged utilizing NAFTA 2.0, as has happened under NAFTA 1.0. In trade deals Canada has signed since NAFTA, it allowed government bureaucrats to evaluate whether environmental policies are being enforced in what many critics see as an incredible conflict of interest.
