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DR-CAFTA and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities Conference
Washington D. C., September 27th, 2006
GFDD/FUNGLODE will hold a two-day conference in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on October 4th - 5th, where one of the goals of this conference is to open the discussion among stakeholders on the environmental aspects of DR-CAFTA from a domestic and international point of view.
Download the agenda click HERE
| The goals of DR-CAFTA and the environment conference |
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To open the discussion among stakeholders on the environmental aspects of DR-CAFTA from a domestic and international point of view |
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To provide a forum where private and public representatives involved in the implementation of the Agreement can present their questions and find potential answers |
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To provide a forum where stakeholders can network, exchange information, and explore eventual associations and alliances |
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To provide a resource to the private sector to better understand the demands the Agreement may impose and find eventual sources |
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To provide resources to stakeholders that will contribute to the competitivity of the country to better interact in a globalized market |
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| Background |
| The Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement, DR-CAFTA, is designed to eliminate tariffs and trade barriers and expand regional opportunities for the workers, manufacturers, consumers, farmers, ranchers and service providers of all the countries. Eighty percent of DR-CAFTA imports already enter the United States duty free under | the Caribbean Basin Initiative, Generalized System of Preferences and Most Favored Nation programs; DR-CAFTA will provide reciprocal access for U.S. products and services eliminating tariffs on more than 80 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial products, phasing out the rest over 10 years. | It is expected that DR-CAFTA will also be an economic tool capable of reducing poverty, promoting growth and nurture the democratic progress of the past decade in Central America and the Dominican Republic while promoting free and liberalized trade throughout the world. |
| Justification |
| Central America is a region with astounding biodiversity and important world ecosystems. It also is a region suffering from severe poverty and significant environment and public health problems. One important step to improving protection of the environment in Central America is poverty reduction through increased economic growth. Countries with higher national incomes tend to have stronger environmental protections and lower rates of pollution. Liberalized trade through DR-CAFTA is expected | produce more and better paying jobs in Central America — and that prosperity will make it possible for the region to improve environmental protection. DR-CAFTA assumes that liberalized trade can help improve environmental protection by lowering the barriers to the sale of environmental technologies; enabling new investments in environmental infrastructure; and facilitating access to environmental scientists, |
engineers and technicians to the people of Central America and the Dominican Republic. It is expected that, upon implementation of DR-CAFTA, many American environmental goods will be able to enter the countries of Central America duty free. Improved provision of such goods and services is particularly important to improve public health and environmental protection in the region. |
| Purpose |
| DR-CAFTA contains groundbreaking environmental provisions that go far beyond previous free trade agreements in empowering citizens to enforce environmental laws and in creating mechanisms to improve environmental protection. DR-CAFTA ensures enforcement of environmental laws through an innovative public submission process and a procedure for fines and sanctions of countries that fail to enforce their own laws. DR-CAFTA also requires countries to respect multilateral environmental agreements and to agree not to weaken their environmental laws. In addition, DR-CAFTA provides a mechanism for environmental capacity building and creates an environmental cooperation commission. These provisions represent the most advanced environmental provisions ever included in a trade agreement. For instance, Article 17.7 of DR-CAFTA creates a citizen submission process that allows any citizen of a DR-CAFTA member country to file a complaint alleging that a country is not enforcing its environmental laws. The procedure requires parties to respond to citizen allegations and provides for an environmental secretariat to develop a factual record regarding the allegation. These citizen submission procedures are similar to those found in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) environmental side agreement, and they have never before been included in the text of a trade agreement. DR-CAFTA also contains a section on voluntary mechanisms to enhance environmental performance. This innovative section requires parties to encourage voluntary performance guidelines; information sharing; and the development of incentives, such as market-based programs, to encourage conservation and protection of the environment. DR-CAFTA also includes an environmental cooperation agreement that provides a framework for undertaking environmental capacity building in DR-CAFTA countries and establishes an Environmental Cooperation Commission. Again, DR-CAFTA goes beyond previous trade agreements in creating innovative capacity-building, cooperation and information sharing frameworks. Finally, DR-CAFTA contains an explicit recognition of multilateral environmental agreements and requires parties to enhance the mutual supportiveness of trade agreements and environmental agreements. Together, these provisions give DR-CAFTA the most comprehensive environmental provisions ever included in a trade agreement. Many critics of DR-CAFTA allege that its investment chapter contains provisions “allowing foreign investors to challenge legitimate laws and regulations and demand monetary compensation for the implementation of legitimate environmental protections.” Nonetheless nothing in the agreement prevents fair, nondiscriminatory environmental regulation. Indeed, the provisions of the environment chapter of DR-CAFTA trump those of Chapter 10 in the case of conflict. |
| Some of the features of the Agreement in the environmental field are: |
| Ensure that trade and environmental policies are mutually supportive, seek to protect and preserve the environment, and enhance the international means of doing so, while optimizing the use of the world’s resources. Seek provisions in trade agreements under which parties to those agreements strive to ensure that they do not weaken or reduce the protections afforded in domestic environmental laws as an encouragement for trade. |
Ensure that parties do not fail to effectively enforce environmental laws through a sustained or recurring course of action or inaction. Strengthen the capacity of U.S. trading partners to protect the environment through the promotion of sustainable development. Reduce or eliminate government practices or policies that unduly threaten sustainable development. |
| Main new environmental features of the Agreement include |
| DR-CAFTA’s citizen submission process, which targets non-enforcement of environmental laws, is the first ever citizen complaint procedure included in a trade agreement. DR-CAFTA’s support for voluntary mechanisms to enhance environmental performance represents the first time a trade agreement recognizes and encourages incentives to encourage conservation and protection of the environment. |
DR-CAFTA’s explicit recognition of multilateral environmental agreements represents the first time a trade agreement calls on parties to enhance the effectiveness of multilateral environmental agreements. An open discussion among local and international specialists regarding the short and long term environmental impact the enforcement of the Agreement will have in the Dominican Republic and the region is greatly necessary. |
| More information |
| U.S. Chamber of Commerce |
U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) |
| U.S. Department of State |
Central America Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic |
| Trade Resource Center |
DR-CAFTA and the Environment |
| GFDD - Special Edition | DR-CAFTA and the Environment |