Trade and Investment Treaties and their Impacts

This chapter begins by reviewing and critiquing the ‘Environmental Kuznets Curve’ and the argument of liberal and neo-liberal theorists that increases in international trade and investment flows, by supporting economic growth, will automatically prove positive for both social development and the environment. It foreshadows three key points of tension between trade and investment flows and sustainable development, providing a framework for the analysis of sustainable development-related innovations in global and regional economic agreements in the following chapters. It then briefly introduces and discusses impact assessments of trade and investment agreements. It discusses the EU approach (sustainability impact assessments), the US approach (environmental reviews), the Canadian approach (environmental assessments) and the approaches used in selected human rights and social impact assessments, and sets the foundation for the discussion that follows in the next chapter.