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DECLARATION BY NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS OF THE HEMISPHERE ON THE OCCASION OF THE IV MINISTERIAL OF THE FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS
We, the undersigned representatives of civil society organizations from countries throughout the hemisphere, gathered here today, March 18, 1998, in San José, Costa Rica: Recognize that our governments are concluding their preliminary discussions on hemispheric economic integration here at the Fourth Trade Ministerial of the Americas, and are about to launch formal negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) at the Second Summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile; Support a just and equitable hemispheric integration process that improves the quality of life, reduces poverty, acknowledges the intrinsic value of nature and promotes sustainable development for all people and nations without exception; Recognize that our governments have committed to the principles of sustainable development, including environmental protection, poverty alleviation and democratization, as established at the Miami Summit of 1994 and reaffirmed in Santa Cruz, Bolivia in 1996; Recognize that trade agreements, when properly structured, can be consistent with the principles of sustainable development; Are concerned that economic integration has advanced without effectively integrating environmental, labor, social, cultural and political components which are indispensible to achieving sustainable development; Recognize that fair competition cannot be based on spurious competition that does not take into account environmental and social costs and recognize that there are transition costs associated with economic integration that must be taken into consideration. Therefore, we call on our governments to establish an action plan and formal mechanisms to integrate the principles of sustainable development, including a formal negotiating group on trade, environment and sustainable development with equal status to other negotiating groups established in the FTAA process. Moreover, the protection and enhancement of environmental quality must become part of the negotiating objectives of all FTAA negotiating groups.
Public Participation Public participation is fundamental to the sustainable development of the Hemisphere, and as such must be placed on the same level as the other negotiation objectives. To that end, in the design of the FTAA we call on governments to: 1. Strengthen the participation of civil society in judicial and administrative proceedings within a domestic environmental law framework and in the formation, negotiation, and implementation of trade and investment policies and agreements. 2. Provide timely access to information, relating to trade policy as well as trade agreement and integration processes. 3. Establish formal processes to permit and encourage timely contributions of a broad spectrum of civil society in the development of the FTAA. This must include the right to make verbal and written submissions and attend national and hemispheric meetings involving policy deliberations. 4. Implement dispute settlement mechanisms and other proceedings that allow for public participation. 5. Provide access to adequate financial resources to achieve the above goals. 6. Make available Inter-American integration process-related documents to the public at the same time as they are circulated to governments to ensure timely and meaningful participation of the public in policy deliberations; these should be at no cost and in a variety of forms, including printed and electronic formats, and should also include the creation of a Data Center, at no cost. 7. Establish National Advisory Committees, with governmental and non-governmental representatives, that, among other objectives, should promote cross-sectoral dialogues and that are responsible for developing concrete recommendations for negotiations, and responses to recommendations offered by other countries. 8. Promote research, training and capacity building in the area of sustainable development. 9. Finance the participation of civil society in the trade and investment negotiations.
Trade, Investment, and Sustainable Development We further call on governments to: 1. Implement national and regional measures to ensure that economic integration in the Western Hemisphere promotes conservation of cultural and biological diversity and ecosystems in the hemisphere. 2. Ensure that the Negotiating Group on Intellectual Property Rights provides guarantees that rights, access and benefits are shared in an equitable manner. 3. Ensure that research on environmental, social and other effects of trade and investment is undertaken and that the results are distributed in a timely and effective manner to all interested parties. 4. Implement and enforce regulations and policies that ensure environmental protection, including cooperation to ensure the upward harmonization of standards. 5. Implement and enforce regulations and policies that ensure equitable distribution of benefits from trade and investment. 6. Reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of consumption and production within and among countries, recognizing the strains placed on the environment by the disproportionate consumption of resources by many industrialized countries. 7. Remove subsidies that encourage the unsustainable use of natural resources, as well as ensure the internalization of environmental externalities and promote incentives for sustainable production and consumption, including the development of national environmental accounting systems. 8. Ensure that Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and their dispute resolution mechanisms have at least equal status to trade agreements in the conduct of international trade and in dispute resolution. Environmental disputes arising out of trade agreements should be resolved in multilateral negotiations.
Environmental Standards and Trade As part of the FTAA negotiations we call on governments to: 1. Incorporate the precautionary principle, as well as the principles of environmental prevention and legal and financial responsibility of polluters for damages to the environment. 2. Create and strengthen administrative and judicial mechanisms for implementing environmental laws and policies, as well as mechanisms to denounce cases where national and international environmental norms are not applied. 3. Harmonize minimum standards, consistent with each ecosystem, that assure the protection of human health and environmental integrity. At the same time, include financial and cooperative mechanisms to ensure the transfer and creation of appropriate technologies, including endogenous technologies, essential for the implementation and sustained improvement of environmental standards. 4. Establish mechanisms to periodically update and improve environmental standards with the participation of all interested parties (NGOs, business, labor, academics, etc.). 5. Ensure that nations, in their regulatory capacity, maintain the ability to set higher environmental standards. 6. As agreed to in the 1994 Miami Summit of the Americas, establish mechanisms for intergovernmental cooperation for the exchange of information, training, technology transfer and policy formulation; as well as the creation of green markets.
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