| The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) currently under negotiations between Canada and the European Union is one of the first next generation free trade agreements. In this respect, it seeks to go beyond where other free trade agreements went. CETA will not only reduce tariff barriers but will attempt to tackle issues such as internal barriers to trade, uneasy market access, government procurement. Many scholars have attempted to uncover the special relationship that the policy fields of trade and the environment maintain. As a way to add to this tradition, this study seeks to uncover the dynamics of this relationship when taken in the context of a next generation free trade agreement. Based on interviews with key observers and an analysis of the literature, this thesis suggests that due to the different parties' current management of environmental protection, CETA could very well be one of the most environmentally friendly free trade agreement to date. |
