• Research
  • Diwan
  • About
  • Experts
Carnegie Middle East logoCarnegie lettermark logo
LebanonIran
REQUIRED IMAGE

REQUIRED IMAGE

Paper

Politics and Parallel Negotiations: Environment and Trade in the Western Hemisphere

Link Copied
By Mr. John Audley and Edward Sherwin
Published on Apr 5, 2002

Additional Links

Full Text (PDF)Full Text (PDF) Spanish

Source: Carnegie Paper No. 25

Summary
In December 1994, at the behest of then–U.S. president Bill Clinton, the leaders of the 34 Western Hemisphere democracies convened in Miami for the first comprehensive hemispheric summit in more than 25 years. The assembled heads of state pledged that their countries would forge a path toward regional integration based on four overarching principles: Governments should build strong democratic institutions, prosperity should be promoted through free trade and economic cooperation, poverty and discrimination should be eliminated, and the natural environment should be preserved through policies promoting sustainable development. Seven and a half years later, the promise of that first Summit of the Americas has only partly been realized. The 34 governments have made substantial progress on their second goal—economic integration—through negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which is expected to go into effect in 2005. However, they have accomplished little in the name of sustainable development.

This new working paper describes the dual challenges of building economies and protecting the environment. John Audley and Edward Sherwin demonstrate how political pressures in industrial and developing countries force linkages between efforts to achieve both objectives simultaneously, and conclude with a prescription for policy makers that addresses the environment and development needs of the hemisphere's countries by giving new mandates to existing multilateral institutions.

Click on link above for full text of this Carnegie Paper.

About the Authors
John Audley is senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment and director of the its Trade, Environment, and Development Project. He is the author of A Greener Fast Track: Putting Environmental Protection on the Trade Agenda (Carnegie Endowment Working Paper No. 22) and coauthor of Overhauling the WTO: Opportunity at Doha and Beyond (Carnegie Endowment Policy Brief No. 6). 

Edward Sherwin is a junior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, working on both the Trade, Environment, and Development and the Public Role for the Private Sector projects. He will be attending Harvard Law School in Fall 2002.

A limited number of print copies are also available.
Request a copy

About the Authors

Mr. John Audley

Former Senior Associate

Edward Sherwin

Authors

Mr. John Audley
Former Senior Associate
Edward Sherwin

Additional Links

Full Text (PDF)Full Text (PDF) Spanish
North AmericaEconomyTradeClimate Change

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

More Work from Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center

  • Paper
    Egypt’s Military Landlord Economy and its Limitations

    The armed forces champion a form of capitalism that is generating revenue, but its reliance on rent faces diminishing returns, leaving the country with massive sunk costs and deferred returns, deepening dependency on external borrowing.

      Yezid Sayigh

  • Article
    From Hormuz to the Maghreb: The Geopolitical Reach of a Gulf Crisis

    Morocco and Algeria, each in its own way, are having to navigate the global economic fallout of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran.

      Yasmine Zarhloule

  • Commentary
    Introduction: Beyond Climate Displacement

    Across the Middle East and North Africa, climate stress interacts with economic fragility, governance failures, social marginalization, and conflict.

      Camille Ammoun

  • Article
    Climate Pressures in Algeria: The Crisis in Rural Kabylie

    Understanding how farmers in the Oued Sahel-Soummam Valley grapple with climate change is essential for addressing the paradoxes through which adaptation, operating at both individual and institutional levels, deepens the region’s vulnerability and erodes the social fabric and agrarian identity that once defined life.

      Ilyssa Yahmi

  • Commentary
    Diwan
    Climate Worsens the Distress of Yemen’s Muhammasheen

    The community already suffers social discrimination, so addressing inequalities requires sustained interventions.

      Musaed Aklan , Mohammad Al-Saidi

Get more news and analysis from
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Carnegie Middle East logo, white
  • Research
  • Diwan
  • About
  • Experts
  • Projects
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Privacy
  • For Media
Get more news and analysis from
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
© 2026 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. All rights reserved.