Politics and Parallel Negotiations: Environment and Trade in the Western Hemisphere

Publication Date: April 2002

Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Author(s): Edward Sherwin; John Audley

Research Area: Environment; Trade

Type: Report

Abstract:

In December 1994, at the behest of then-U.S. president Bill Clinton, the leaders of the 34 Western Hemisphere democracies convened in Miami for the first comprehensive hemispheric summit in more than 25 years. The assembled heads of state pledged that their countries would forge a path toward regional integration based on four overarching principles: Governments should build strong democratic institutions, prosperity should be promoted through free trade and economic cooperation, poverty and discrimination should be eliminated, and the natural environment should be preserved through policies promoting sustainable development. Seven and a half years later, the promise of that first Summit of the Americas has only partly been realized. The 34 governments have made substantial progress on their second goal--economic integration--through negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which is expected to go into effect in 2005. However, they have accomplished little in the name of sustainable development.

This new working paper describes the dual challenges of building economies and protecting the environment. John Audley and Edward Sherwin demonstrate how political pressures in industrial and developing countries force linkages between efforts to achieve both objectives simultaneously, and conclude with a prescription for policy makers that addresses the environment and development needs of the hemisphere's countries by giving new mandates to existing multilateral institutions.