Research On Environmental Provisions In U.S. Free Trade Agreements

With the further development of globalization, the relationship between tradeliberalization and environmental protection is paid more and more attention. How toset up an effective means of international trade legal system to balance therelationship between the two has become a hot issue to explore in the aspects oftheory and practice. Due to the uneven level of economic development, environmentalprotection and legal system construction, the developed countries and developingcountries cannot reach consensus to built trade-related environmental legalmechanisms in the multilateral trading system. While for economic, political andother reasons, the United States actively promote the coordination of the relationshipbetween trade and the environment in bilateral and regional relations, and become apioneer in incorporating specific environmental provisions into a free trade agreement(hereinafter FTA), and implement its standards on coordination of trade andenvironment to other countries with the FTAs.With the continuous development of China’s international trade, how to deal withthe influence of American paradigm, how to balance the relationship between tradeand the environment in international trade system, and how to seize the initiative onbuilding trade-related environmental legal mechanisms at the bilateral, regional andmultilateral levels, have become problems China must face. Therefore, master thespecific content and process of development of environmental provisions of U.S.FTAs, will provide a big help to solve these problems.On the basis of environmental provisions of all U.S. FTAs, this thesis exploresthe reasons for incorporation of environmental provisions in U.S. FTAs, conducts acomprehensive analysis of the specific content and process of development of the keyprovisions, and based on our situation, makes recommendations on how to design ourenvironmental provisions of FTAs. This thesis is divided into5parts:The first part: Motivation on incorporating environmental provisions into U.S.FTAs. This part conducts a detailed analysis from three aspects: promoting thenegotiations of trade and environmental issues in WTO, U.S. policy-oriented andinterest-driven. Among them, the interest-driven including environmental protection,political needs, domestic industries protection and overseas markets development forgreen products and technologies. The second part: The brief process of development of environmental provisionsof U.S. FTAs. The process of development is divided into four stages, NAFTA is thecornerstone, the U.S.-Jordan FTA is a breakthrough, since the U.S.-Singapore FTAto the U.S.-Oman FTA is a stage of stable development of environmental provisions,and from the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement begin that Americanparadigm basically formed.The third part: The substantiality of environmental provisions of U.S. FTAs. Thesubstantiality of environmental provisions is divided into six elements: objectives,general commitments, levels of protection, relationship to environmental agreementsand enforcement of environmental laws.The fourth part: The procedural mechanisms of environmental provisions of U.S.FTAs. The comprehensive procedural mechanisms are dispute settlement with strongexecutive power, the domestic legal procedures, and “soft law mechanisms” such aspublic participation mechanism.The fifth part: The impact of environmental provisions of U.S. FTAs and itsimplications for China. This part is divided into two sections. Firstly, explore theimpact of the environmental provisions of U.S. FTAs to the Parties of FTAs,non-Parties, and WTO; Secondly, in terms of learning American experience and onthe basis of China’s actual situation, make recommendations on the incorporationenvironmental provisions into the China FTAs, including the preparation, theprinciple of the construction and the specific content of the provisions.