Introduction

Since 1990, the US has integrated a suite of environmental policies into fourteen bilateral or regional trade agreements with 24 countries, and this chapter provides the historical context for this trade and environmental policy integration. The chapter starts with a discussion on the roles that Congress and the president play in developing trade policy, the importance of fast-track authority for influencing trade policy content, and the increased focused of trade liberalization on non-tariff barriers to trade and opposition due to non-trade related issues, such as environmental protection. The chapter then delves into the precedent-setting integration of environmental policies into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the first trade agreement that explicitly addressed environmental concerns. The integration of policies for the other thirteen US trade agreements, including the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), are then discussed, along with notable shifts in the content of the environmental policies across the trade agreements. The chapter then highlights the need for a review of the policies considering the contentiousness and ongoing debate over the need for the policies and their effectiveness.