WA11 Governance & Law: Global Perspectives
E145-146
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Wednesday
() The North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and its trinational Sound Management of Chemicals Program.
TRIP, L.1, 1 Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
ABSTRACT- The signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement brought with it a concern that the North American environmental agenda could be reduced to the lowest common denominator. To counter this concern and to ease apprehensions that NAFTA would lead to degradation of environmental standards, the three countries agreed to establish the Commission for Environmental Cooperation under the authority of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel agreement to NAFTA. Recognizing that toxic chemical uses, manufacturing and disposal were a large part of the North American economy, Ministers of the environment for the three NAFTA partners agree to develop North American regional action plans (NARAPs) to assess, and mitigate possible trinational impacts resulting from the use and dispersion of these substances. There were originally four substances, Chlordane, PCB, DDT and Mercury selected by Ministers with a subsequent three more suggested by the Substance Selection Task Force; Lindane, Dioxins/Furans/Hexachlorobenzene as a group and Lead. This paper will provide a summary of the success and failures related to establishing a trilateral, continental scale chemical management initiative and the influence such a program has been able to generate, with specific reference to DDT and mercury.
Key words: America, North , Chemicals, Management