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Broken Promises: How the Clinton Administration is Trading Away Our Environment Under Clinton Administration trade policy, we are literally trading away public health and the environment for corporate profits. Yet the Administration has consistently promised that its policy would not only protect, but "improve" the environment. This report documents the reality behind those promises. It also offers ideas for an environmentally sound trade policy. Trade is today more than the great unifying theme behind American foreign policy. It is also a major cause of pressure on the environment. Trade liberalization is meant to foster economic growth. And like any policy to promote growth, trade policy must take account of its environmental impacts to ensure sustainable development. Otherwise, growing the economy will come at the cost of unsustainable resource extraction and of intolerable pollution levels. Free trade policy also fosters globalization, the integration of economies across traditional political, cultural, and ecological boundaries. As boundaries are blurred, democratic governance may be weakened, traditional values could erode, and isolated ecological niches may be opened up. The result is disruption of complex political, social, and natural systems that were often centuries -- sometimes eons -- in the making. Such complex systems are often well beyond the power of human ingenuity to repair, let alone fully understand. Finally, in order to reduce barriers to commerce, free trade rules limit what governments can do to protect public health and the environment. In just the last two years, WTO dispute panels have ruled against US sea turtle protections, European food safety standards, and US clean air rules. But direct challenges to environmental laws may be just the tip of the iceberg. Of even greater concern, governments have begun to avoid actions that might later give rise to trade conflicts. As a result of the "chilling effect," for instance, US regulators have set weak standards for control of pests on imported logs, putting our forests at risk. Rather than merely celebrate the wonders of a high-tech global future, prudence dictates that we also attend to the unintended impacts of economic globalization on democratic governance, on community, and on the environment. We can then begin to build an international trading system that fosters a high quality of life for all, and not just big profits for large corporations. The 50th Anniversary of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which President Clinton and other world leaders will celebrate in Geneva on May 20th, offers an historic opportunity to set a new course for an environmentally responsible trade policy. Certainly, the Clinton Administration understands the urgency of the issues. As Vice President Gore said at the signing of the GATT Uruguay Round agreement in Marrakesh in 1994, "Economic growth pursued without vision or compassion for the way it may affect working men and women and without regard for environmental consequences ... contains the seeds of its own destruction." We challenge the Clinton Administration to make that vision a reality. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
