Environmental assessment of Canadian trade and investment negotiations

Abstract

The 2001 Framework for Conducting Environmental Assessments of Trade Negotiations is being applied to multilateral, regional and bilateral trade negotiations and foreign investment promotion and protection agreements. This article provides an overview of the challenges and lessons learned during these assessments from the perspective of the environmental assessment of the Trade Secretariat for the Government of Canada. Recent efforts have focused on application of the Framework to investment negotiations, improving consultations and communications, and addressing the ongoing challenge of data limitations. The article closes with a discussion of some issues that require continued consideration by environmental experts and trade negotiators working in impact assessment of trade and investment negotiations.