The Washington Post / Reuters
Environmental activists said yesterday a White House plan for making environmental protection a priority in future trade agreements was a step in the right direction but did not go far enough.
The White House unveiled draft guidelines in July calling for U.S. trade officials to review how proposed market-opening agreements would affect the environment.
In releasing the plan, the White House hoped to blunt charges that the free trade policies of President Clinton and his possible successor, Vice President Gore, were a threat to wildlife.
Environmental groups generally praised the White House effort, but the 600,000-member Sierra Club told a public hearing that the guidelines "have a long way to go if we are going to resolve the significant tensions between these two policy arenas."
Daniel Seligman, director of the Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program, said loopholes in the guidelines were "an open invitation for political and bureaucratic pressure to step away from the review process."
Friends of the Earth complained that draft trade agreements would not be made public, inhibiting the ability of environmental groups to review the documents and register their complaints.
The Center for International Environmental Law criticized the White House for putting the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in charge.
"USTR, as an institution, has close relations to industry," Sierra Club's Seligman added. "It's somewhat opaque to non-industry interests."
The draft was issued in response to an executive order signed by Clinton in November.
A final set of rules should be ready in a few months, U.S. officials said.
Last year's executive order was part of a broader White House effort to sell the benefits of free trade to Americans--and to win the support of wary Democrats in Clinton's own party who blocked earlier White House trade goals.
It was also designed to give Gore's presidential campaign a boost. The Democratic candidate is counting on support from environmental groups. In July, the Sierra Club endorsed Gore.
Under the proposed rules, U.S. trade negotiators will start environmental reviews early in the process and allow greater input from wildlife groups, community leaders and others.
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