that Mexico’s environmental regulations were less strict and those that were in place were loosely enforced. American industries would see Mexico as a pollution haven where they could set up less environmentally sound facilities to increase overall profit. Therefore, the NAFTA was seen as beneficial to the American environment at the expense of that of Mexico’s. A question that members of the NAFTA panel must ask themselves is “…is it economically efficient and morally justifiable for agents to satisfy their demand for high environmental standards by allowing others to despoil their environment?” (Kaufmann, par. 45). Another fear of those opposed to the NAFTA was that environmental regulations already in place would deteriorate due to business competition. As Mexico has the lowest environmental regulations, Mexican businesses have an unfair advantage over Canadian and US markets as they can produce goods at a much lower price. This advantage would force the American and Canadian businesses to circumvent their local regulations to remain competitive in their respective markets, eventually leading to the decay of present environmental regulations. Mexican businesses are also faced with a competitive disadvantage due to the fact that in an open market, local businesses will “…be forced to compete with more technologically sophisticated firms from richer countries and, therefore, limit investments in pollution control equipment in order to keep Eidse 3their costs low”(Husted, par. 6). This problem was not entirely overlooked in the construction of the NAFTA as it entailed a provision warning governments against dropping regulations; unfortunately the provision establishes no requirements and cannot be grounds for an official complaint. Although the environmental regulations that the NAFTA has been set to encourage are a major step forward, lack of enforcement and uniformity amidst the...
