three nations has greatly reduced their effectiveness at achieving a greener North America.Effects of Combining Trade and EnvironmentWhen the NAFTA was initially proposed, no environmental side agreement was entailed. Environmental Non-Government Organizations (ENGOs) such as Green Peace, Sierra Club, and Friends of the Earth saw that the effect of freer trade on the environment was indeed noteworthy, and thus proposed that an environmental side agreement was necessary to minimize the damage to the Earth. Aside from their immediate environmental concerns, the ENGOs saw that the NAFTA could supply them with the means to expand their influence outside their nation’s borders. With this new trade agreement it was now possible to take environmental restoration to a global level. Unfortunately, this international platform also gave the government the ability to make its own ideals felt abroad, which in many cases harmed foreign countries. Through the NAFTA the US would have the right to set trade sanctions and embargos on nations that did not comply with their own environmental regulations. The NAFTA, in effect, provides a mechanism to push American ideals down the throats of foreign countries. I Eidse 4say American ideals and do not include those of Canadian or Mexican because the US has the strictest and most comprehensive environmental regulations in the world, setting the standard for the other members of the NAFTA. This creates problems in less developed nations who rely on the exportation of their goods to North America as members of the NAFTA are required to refuse the importation of goods that do not comply to their environmental standards. “ By injecting environmentalism into the terms of trade, the United States arrogantly imposes its global priorities and values on the developing world. Many of these states are financially simply not able to devote adequate resources to environmental issues without sacri...
