Greening through Trade

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Trade-environment scholarship has traditionally centered on the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, with WTO negotiations stalled, trade-environment politics are shifting significantly. The U.S. is increasingly pursuing its environmental interests through bilateral and regional trade agreements, incorporating extensive environmental provisions. These agreements are now being used as tools to compel trading partners to implement multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and adopt new environmental norms and policies. This shift prompts critical questions about how the U.S. identifies environmental issues for trade agreements, the nature and extent of environmental policy diffusion, and the impact of these policies on MEA implementation and effectiveness. The book explores these questions, focusing on the impacts of environmental provisions in U.S. preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on the environmental policies of trading partners and MEA effectiveness. Through case studies, it argues that U.S. trade agreements facilitate the diffusion of environmental policies and norms to both partner nations and third-party countries. Additionally, it posits that these environmental provisions can enhance MEA effectiveness by strengthening enforcement mechanisms through links to PTA dispute settlement systems.