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7 J. Envtl. L. & Litig. 1 (1992)
Using Trade Agreements to Protect the Environment

handle is hein.journals/jenvll7 and id is 11 raw text is: FOREWORDS
Congressman Ron Wyden
Using Trade Agreements
to Protect the Environment
Five years ago, if someone had asked an environmentalist how an
international trade agreement might affect environmental protection, the
response would most likely have been a blank stare. The same ques-
tion asked of a trade negotiator would have drawn a similar response.
Five years ago, trade and environmental experts worked in separate
worlds and spoke completely different languages. But today, trade and
the environment are cohabiting, and policy makers from both worlds
are haltingly leaming each other's language, customs, and needs.
In 1991, when Congress was debating whether to extend the
President's fast track trade negotiating authority for the Uruguay
Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the question of en-
vironmental protection became a critical issue. A bloc of over forty Con-
gressmen conditioned their support for fast track on a promise by
President Bush to preserve the environment, and elicited a presiden-
tial Action Plan meant to implement that promise. Their votes provided
the margin to support fast track reauthorization in a 231-192 vote.
Since that vote, pro-trade environmentalists have battled the admin-
istration over just what it means to preserve the environment in the
context of a trade negotiation. The outcome of that battle will have
significant effect on the debate over approving a Uruguay Round
agreement and will almost certainly decide the fate of the NAFTA.
The NAFTA text initialed by President Bush in September 1992 and
the accompanying Integrated Border Environmental Plan (IBEP) are
.United States House of Representatives (D. 3d Dist. Or.) (elected 1980); J.D.,
University of Oregon, 1974; A.B., Stanford University, 1971.
[I]

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