The North American Free Trade Agreement and Environmental Provisions: A Review of Promises, Processes, and Outcomes

This paper is intended to familiarize marketing managers with selected environmental implications of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on their organizations. The paper reviews the history and terms of the NAFTA with attention to its performance in reference to environmental matters. In so doing it first addresses the roots and unique environmental problems facing the negotiators of the NAFTA. The paper then identifies institutions created by the signatory nations to specifically address environmental-trade problems. The paper concludes with several references to distinctions between what is, and what can be done to move closer to the agreement’s stated goal of embracing sustainable development.