Transboundary environmental impact assessment as part of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation

Abstract

The North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the environmental side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), was adopted in 1993 as an unprecedented response to growing environmental concerns about liberalized trade. The NAAEC created the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and established a broad framework for North American environmental cooperation. NAAEC Article 10(7) called for the NAFTA governments to work toward an agreement on transboundary environmental impact assessment (TEIA). Negotiation of a TEIA agreement among the NAFTA partners, only one of which (the USA) shares a border with the others, involved significant challenges, including differences among the domestic EIA legislation and policy regimes of Canada, Mexico and the USA. Fifteen years later, these challenges have so far prevented completion of a TEIA agreement. A clearer role for the CEC in supporting and facilitating negotiation of a TEIA agreement, and in supporting it once adopted, could help overcome these challenges.

Keywords:

• transboundary environmental impact assessment
• North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation
• Commission for Environmental Cooperation
• Security and Prosperity Partnership