Trade in natural resources inherently involves environmental issues. For this reason, environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) must inject themselves into trade disputes involving natural resources and primary products in order for free trade and environmental protection to be made compatible to achieve sustainable development. This article will examine the interrelationships between trade and the environment through the example of British Columbia's Q3C) timber trade. Timber is a very important part of Canada's export trade, but it is an endangered natural resource which is not currently being used in a way that balances all of the environmental, economic, and social factors involved. 0 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1995, 108 Cowley Road. Oxlord OX4 1JF. UK and 238 Main Street, Cambridge. MA 02142, USA.
The North American Free Trade Agreement is the first trade pact that provides considerable protections for a country's environmental standards. The environmental side agreement to theNAFTA, negotiated at the insistence of and with the participation of environmental groups, has promoted the important roles in environmental regulation and enforcement played by the principles of transparency (right-to-know) and public participation (right-to-sue). The side agreement provides for: citizen submissions to the Secretariat of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation; the U.S., Mexican, and Canadian governments' guarantees of citizens' right-to-know, as well as citizen suits and remedies regarding environmental harm and requests for enforcement of environmental laws. As procedures under the NAFTA and its environmental side agreement are developed, opportunities remain to incorporate the principles af transparency and public participation even more broadly.2
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