Actions by one sovereign state regularly, and in increasingly apparent ways, trigger environmental repercussions borne by the citizens of other sovereign states. The list is long: ozone depletion, global warming, reduction of fish stocks, acid rain, aquifer contamination, loss of biological diversity, soil erosion, hazardous waste storage, and air pollution, etc. The communal nature of shared resources also contradicts the emphasis on borders. Richard Falk explains:
Related, yet distinct, is the failure of the states system to protect the global commons. Each state does not necessarily fully appreciate its own contribution to the harm: but even if it does, it is often the captive of special interest groups that press effectively to continue contested activity. Earlier in the history of statism this issue was almost purely hypothetical, since the scale and character of human activity did not endanger the global commons. Only in recent years have we come to realize that it is necessary to protect the global commons by coordinated action that may imply cutbacks for some forms of territorial activity; we now face the seeming impossibility of finding either the political will or the technical means to do so. (1)
Environmental systems are incongruent with the linear assumptions of the territorially obsessed nation-state.
The realization that environmental issues cannot be effectively dealt with on a national level has made it difficult to continue to see states as separate, self-contained entities. Since the 1980's, much attention has focused on human induced environmental problems. Attempts at treaty formation to deal with these issues have occurred, with limited success, due to the nature of the treaty system, but the fact remains that environmental concerns have helped to signify the futility of continuing to perceive ourselves as separate national entities. Environmental pressures have eroded sovereignty both by exposing its shortcomings and fueling transnational responses to adapt.
This section deals with the interdependence of environmental systems, especially in regards to countries whose systems are connected by free trade agreements. Fusing environmental protections into free trade agreements creates an important tool to coordinate economic growth in a sustainable manner. The preamble of the NAFTA agreement commits its three sovereign members to strengthen the development and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations as well as promote the concept of sustainable development. The agreement's ability to live up to its promise as a "green" trade agreement has not yet been fully realized. By strengthening the support and enforcement mechanisms of the existing NAFTA institutions, the NAFTA can realize its potential as a framework for a comprehensive, international environmental protection plan.
Institutions set up within the NAFTA are designed to develop new political, social, and environmental coalitions for managing the ecosystem, which support and ultimately strengthen the trade agreement itself. Deepening and stabilizing these institutions, encouraging democratic participation and access to them, and enforcing factual findings will improve the agreement substantially. A deepened NAFTA will not in itself solve the continent's environmental problems. It will, however, strengthen the capacity of governments to ensure environmental concerns are not pushed aside as countries race toward greater trade liberalization. In this section each author has reached the conclusion that there must be a shift from maximizing the importance of a "growth economy," to maximizing the sustainability of the ecosystem.
In the first chapter, Nicole C. Oliver analyzes the dominant economic model, which attempts to solve many of the problems of developing countries by emphasizing the growth of a nation's GNP, without adequately taking into account the environmental consequences of trade liberalization. Economists who promote the neo liberal model suggest that improving the overall wealth of a nation will ultimately raise the standard of living and thereby reduce pollution, redistribute wealth and income, and improve resource productivity. (2) The problem ultimately lies in the fact that after market forces have been unleashed, a country's natural resources have often been exploited to the point where salvaging the environment is often cost prohibitive or perhaps impossible given the previous disregard for sustainable practices.
Herman Daly emphasizes this point. "The whole idea of sustainable development is that the economic subsystem must not grow beyond the scale at which it can be permanently sustained or supported by the containing ecosystem." (3) There are many definitions of "sustainable development." The most widely accepted was put forth by the World Commission on Environment and Development in its 1987 report, Our Common Future. The report defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." We realize this definition is problematic, in so far as it does not fully probe the complex relationship between economic growth, environmental protection, and social justice. However it does speak to the legitimate linkage between development and environment, highlighting the central role of environmental concerns with trade liberalization.
Environmental degradation has been especially pronounced in parts of North America where movement of products, people and pollutants has increased. In the second chapter, Wendy P. Dodds and Virgil R. Mabalay describe the greatly increased health risks to those citizens near areas of uncontrolled growth, such as the maquiladora borderland region of Mexico. The below average birth weight of babies born to mothers working for border companies has been directly linked to harsh working conditions. Weak infrastructure and unsanitary drinking wells contribute to such conditions. However, in a globalized economy, where borders are breaking down, the environment cannot be viewed as solely a Mexican, U.S. or Canadian problem. Trans-boundary pollution affects all of North America, and thus mediation and prevention requires North American as opposed to national solutions. For example, remote areas of Texas are experiencing smog that scientists believe originates in a plant in Mexico, 125 miles away. Water and air are two of the most obvious examples of shared resources, but many others exist. Nicole C. Oliver's paper illuminates the design and flawed implementation of the border organization created to address the shared environmental problems of U.S. and Mexican border communities.
The CEC, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation created under NAFTA, stresses cooperation and harmonization between its member countries, yet the trilateral body has not been granted effective enforcement power. Although trade-related sanctions are available under the terms of NAFTA, the high threshold necessary for a dispute panel finding of non-enforcement makes lax regulatory action all too common in the three countries. In Chapter 3, Karen Fischer highlights case studies of several NAFTA disputes. She compares the dispute resolution mechanisms of the environmental and the labor side accord, and demonstrates their shortcomings in enforcing domestic environmental and labor regulations. When countries do not enforce domestic regulations, companies pursuing a comparative advantage will find incentives to re-locate to areas where they can externalize costs on non-consenting secondary parties. These subsidies can take many forms such as externalizing the cost of pollution clean-up and destruction of wildlife.
Tougher regulations may impose difficult and even unfair burdens on poorer countries, but such costs can be mitigated by emphasizing innovation for environmental prevention that will make companies more competitive and efficient in the long run. Innovation requires concerted efforts and long term economic development strategies promoted by the wealthier countries. Such approaches require us to shift our thinking away from trade agreements as simply tools for economic expansion, to international economic development agreements which promote sustainability.
As Brenda Thompson points out in Chapter 4, it is plausible that extending the current NAFTA to Chile would create institutional channels and the attention necessary for NGOs to effectively join the movement for deepening the document. This is a risky strategy and is explored in light of the unique economic and environmental situations existing in Chile. The goal must be to deepen NAFTA to assure progress in building "greener" trade agreements in North America and elsewhere. Integrating environmental and economic goals will require some trade-offs, many of which will be politically difficult and might need a third party.
NAFTA has a general framework of guidelines, institutions and criteria. What it lacks is enforcement, budgetary support, and political will to meet its mandates. The concept of sovereignty makes it difficult for individual governments to develop and enforce environmental standards in the common interests of the larger North American community.