NAFTA’s Environmental Watchdog
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is a tri-national organization that serves as NAFTA’s environmental watchdog. Created by the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a NAFTA side agreement, CEC seeks to "address regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts, and to promote the effective enforcement of environmental law."
Of particular note, the CEC has established a citizen-initiated process for enforcing environmental regulations. The "Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters" mechanism is triggered when a person submits "to CEC a claim alleging...a failure on the part of any of the NAFTA partners" to effectively enforce their environmental laws. "Following a review of the submission, the CEC may investigate the matter and publish a factual record of its findings, subject to approval by the CEC Council."
Recently, a coalition of NGOs including Ecojustice, formerly the Sierra Legal Defense Fund, "allege that the governments are undermining the CEC by obstructing its investigations and severely limiting their scope." An NGO official claimed "increasingly blatant government interference in the operations of this important environmental watchdog."
Free trade is essential to economic and environmental health throughout the Americas. An effectively operating watchdog is an important component of NAFTA and could help promote further increases in free trade. To bolster its own effectiveness and public confidence in the citizen petition process, CEC should adopt Data Quality guidelines, similar to OMB’s, which provide objective, manageable standards for evaluating complaints.
See CEC homepage
See CEC Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters Guidelines
See Ecojustice Press Release
See Data Quality Guidelines
