F U N D A C I O N E C O S A NON-PROFIT EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH CENTER TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE MERCOSUR REGION SINCE 1994 A New Mechanism for Hemispheric Cooperation on Environmental Sustainability and Trade? DRAFT CONCEPT PAPER FOR CONSULTATION. Developed by Members of the Hemispheric Working Group on Trade and Environment: Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (Project Director, Americas Portfolio, IISD) Maria Leichner Reynal, (Executive Director, Fundacion ECOS) Nicola Borregaard (Coordinator Economy and Environment, CIPMA) Ana Karina González (Coordinator Trade and Environment, CEMDA) Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger Project Director, Americas Portfolio UNEP / IISD 3661 Peel St. Montreal, Quebec Canada H3A 1X! Tel: (514) 581-4984 Fax: (514) 398 8197 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://iisd.ca/trade María Leichner Reynal Executive Director FUNDACION ECOS CEP 56098 Agencia 20 Punta del Este Uruguay Tel/Fax0 (59-842) 771252 Email: [email protected] Interent: http://www.fundacionecos.org Nicola Borregaard Coordinator Economy and Environment CIPMA Bucarest 046 Santiago Chile Tel: (56-2) 3341091 Fax: (56-2)3341095 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://www.cipma.cl/ Ana Karina González Lutzenkirchen Coordinator Trade and Environment Programme CEMDA Atlixco 138 col. Condesa, 06140 México, D.F. Tel: (52) 55.53.99.75 / 52.86.33.23 ext 17 Fax: (52) 52.11.23.93 E-mail : [email protected] Internet: www.cemda.org.mx 1. Introduction The launching of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of Ministers of LAC (Latin America and the the Americas) process opened the doors for Caribbean) has been meeting for several years under mutually supportive environmental, social and trade the auspices of the United Nations Environment policies, and for the participation of civil society. Programme Regional Office for Latin America and The FTAA is being negotiated in the context of a the Caribbean, with Canadian and American broader Summit of the Americas process, which observers.iii Modeled on the 1992 Rio ‘Earth holds the potential to advance sustainable Summit’ Agenda 21, a hemispheric sustainable development. The original 1994 ‘Summit of the development agenda was also declared by the 34 Americas’ agenda aimed to create a partnership governments in the 1996 Santa Cruz Summit of the between the economies and countries of the Americas in Bolivia. Unlike in Rio, no legally Americas for environmental protection, economic binding environmental accords were opened for growth, democratic reform and social justice. A key signature in Santa Cruz, but various sectoral component of sustainable development is environmental initiatives have been launched, environmental management. Just as the Americas including the Red Inter-Americana de Recursos Hidricos Environment Ministers who met in Montreal in (RIRH), Iniciativa Energia Renovable en las Americas April, 2001, committed to maximize the potential (EREA), and the Inter-American Biodiversity Information for mutually supportive policies on economic Network (IABIN).iv integration and environmental protection,i so did the Declaration of the Third Summit of the Governments of the Americas have agreed in Americas, in April, 2001, Quebec City, address the principle that… “[d]evelopment strategies need to environment as part of ‘creating prosperity’ in the include sustainability as an essential requirement for Western Hemisphere. These advances are the balanced, interdependent, and integral embedded in a context of increasingly serious attainment of economic, social, and environmental environment and development challenges in the goals.”v Creating the appropriate hemispheric legal Americas, and resulting advancements in and policy framework to promote sustainability environmental law and policy on various levels.ii In would be simply a fundamental starting point. particular, an active forum of Environment 2. The Americas: Two Regions, Five Sub-Regions, One Hemisphere. To develop such an agenda, it is first necessary to do well to consider models from the whole range of look at the actual ‘architecture’ of international sub-regional mechanisms.vii While North American economic, development and environmental Agreement for Environmental Cooperation is a well- cooperation in the Americas, and how it has known example, the newer and perhaps further- changed recently. Traditional international relations reaching Framework Agreement on the Environment in theory divides the Western Hemisphere into sharply the Mercosur, as well as the Central American Alliance defined breaks between North and Latin America for Sustainable Development, the efforts of the Andean (with an addition of ‘the Caribbean’ in voce sotto). Consejo de Autoridades Ambientales de la Comunidad However, in practice, the Free Trade Area of the Andina, or certain aspects of the CARICOM, also Americas is being deliberatelyvi built upon advances present innovations worthy of examination. A new achieved in five sub-regional trade agreements; the kind of hemispheric thinking, based on Mercosur, the Andean Community (ANCOM), the consideration of at least five sub-regional models Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Central for trade and sustainability policy linkages, is American Common Market (CACM), and the necessary to recommend strategic directions for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). high priority international nexus of trade and As policy makers grapple with the question of trade sustainable development in the Western and environment in the FTAA process, they would Hemisphere. 3. A Survey of Models for Hemispheric Environmental Cooperation The FTAA is different from all sub-regional The Mercosur Framework Agreement on the Environment environmental cooperation processes in three ways. Linkages between trade and the environment were First, the 34 Parties are already linked by a complex recognised early in the process of building the web of occasionally in-effectual but historically Mercosur, and a ‘Sub-Grupo No.6’ now exists on the established hemispheric and sub-regional inter- environment, as one of the recognised technical governmental organisations and legal instruments. working bodies. The Council (Consejo Mercado Any proposals will not be starting from scratch, and Común) , in June 2001, approved the Mercosur cannot expect to create scratch, then start, either. Framework Agreement on the Environment which was Second, in terms of procedure, a special political added to the Treaty of Asuncion of the Mercosur.ix context exists in connection with advancing FTAA A comprehensive treaty, the 2001 Mercosur negotiations, where parallel hemispheric Framework Agreement on the Environment, at Chapter 2, environment and development measures might be Article 4, establishes a shared objective of welcomed as part of the package. Finally, trade “sustainable development and environmental liberalisation itself is a debated issue in the public protection through the development of economic, mind of many countries today, and a well-informed social and environmental dimensions, contributing civil society movement is developing in the to a better quality of environment and life for the Americas parallel to the ever-stronger protest voice. people.”x This objective establishes the accord as an It will be necessary to put forward a focused trade integrated instrument. The text of the agreement and sustainability agenda with appropriate financial provides for upward harmonisation of and political support in order to convince these environmental management systems and increased groups to support a new hemispheric process. To co-operation on shared ecosystems, in addition to do so, an examination of sub-regional models is mechanisms for social participation and the useful. protection of health. At Chapter 3, it commits member states to cooperation on the development Environmental management regimes exist in the of instruments for environmental management five sub-regions of the Americas through a series of including quality standards, environmental impact sub-regional agreements aimed at preserving the assessment methods, environmental monitoring and environment and promoting sustainable costs, environmental information systems and development. Common challenges include the need certification processes. At Chapter 4, Art. 8 to 11, for coordination of environmental laws, standards, there are provisions for the settlement of any certification, capacity building or awareness disputes (by reference to the existing Mercosur programs, coping with forest fires, transboundary dispute settlement process) and other general air and water pollution, desertification, and floods, mechanisms for implementation of the Framework as well as efforts for joint ecosystem management, Agreement. The Annex provides a framework for wildlife protection or conservation of biodiversity.viii the future development of protocols in three areas: Sub-regional environmental regimes in the Americas sustainable management of natural resources (such are integrated to varying degrees into the relevant as protected areas, biological diversity, biosafety, trade agreements or common markets, or into other wildlife management, forests, and hydrological broader political processes. Institutional resources); quality of life and environmental arrangements also vary greatly. Early examples management (such as hazardous waste address common concerns requiring trans-boundary management, urban planning, renewable energy, environmental management and simply coordinate and improvement of soil