Environmental issues in economic partnership agreements: Implications for developing countries

This issue paper, titled 'Environmental Issues in Economic Partnership Agreements: Implications for Developing Countries', and written by Mrs. Beatrice Dove-Edwin, is a contribution to that process. The paper exhaustively reviews all rules related to trade and environment in several of the already signed EPAs. The aim of the paper is to enable ACP countries to understand how trade policy related to the environment has been introduced in EPAs, and how those policies might impact sustainable development in ACP countries. The paper starts by presenting the current European approach on trade and environment in those agreements. More specifically, it addresses the current state of negotiations, analyses precise proposals made, and explores some of the implications of introducing environmental issues in the EPAs ..

Governing GMOs in the EU: A Deviant Case of Environmental Policy-making?

The central question addressed in this study is how one of the world's strongest and fastest growing sectors-the biotech industry-has seemingly been without influence in the EU's efforts to regulate genetically modified organisms. First, agri-biotech industry's positions are compared to the policy outputs. This is followed by a discussion about precaution and protectionism. The paper goes on to analyze the role of industry in light of three hypothesized explanations: internal unity; access to decision-making; and strength of counterbalancing forces. It concludes that counterbalancing forces, particularly in combination with developments in the EU decision-making procedures, provide the greatest explanatory power. Moreover, the strength of the counterbalancing forces in this particular environmental issue area is boosted by the links between health and environment concerns in public opinion. Copyright (c) 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.