Environmental Provisions in Recent Regional Trade Agreements (2008 & 2009)

Despite a failure to achieve closure on the Doha Round of WTO negotiations, regional and bilateral trade agreements involving a variety of countries have continued to be negotiated, signed and implemented. Most of the recent trade agreements have contained some environmental provisions, ranging from a pledge to protect the environment to very extensive environmental requirements. These results appear to reflect a recognition that trade has environmental consequences and that trade agreements can be constructed to help mitigate such effects.