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Published in Summer 2003
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Symposium sparks debate, demonstration
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| © Spencer Tripp/CEC |
Agriculture, energy and maize were front and center at the second North American Symposium on Assessing the Environmental Effects of Trade this past March, as industry, government and academia experts converged on Mexico City for the two-day meeting.
The event was part of a larger, weeklong conference called Trade and Environment in the Americas,
which partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme to draw over 300 individuals from
23 countries.
Thirteen research papers were presented at the symposium, ranging from energy use in the cement industry to maize diversity.
Karel Mayrand, director of research at the Unisfera International Centre, presented a paper on the economic and environmental impacts of agricultural subsidies. He told the audience that agricultural subsidies such as those provided in OECD countries, "not only depress commodity prices and distort normal trade flow, but also degrade the environment in terms of reduced agro-biodiversity, exposure to pesticides and fertilizers, and habitat destruction."
Concerned by the potential appearance of transgenic corn in traditional Mexican maize agriculture, Greenpeace Mexico also held a small demonstration to underline their fears.
Liza Covantes, spokesperson for Greenpeace Mexico, told reporters: "Various environmental problems that have arisen due to NAFTA will be discussed here and the fact that traditional maize has been contaminated by imports should be an important focus. Why is the government waiting to take the first important step and stop transgenic maize imports?"
The CEC has begun an independent study on the effects of transgenic maize in Mexico, and is expected to hold a public forum on the issue this winter.
"Be it maize, energy or other topics, events like these offer the opportunity to dialogue on important issues in an open and transparent manner," said Chantal Line Carpentier, the head of the Environment, Economy and Trade Program at the CEC.
The symposium also afforded an opportunity to further develop the CEC's methodology for assessing the environmental consequences of liberalized trade, begun at the first symposium in 2000. Rather than offering aggregate analysis at the national level, the CEC approached the environment and trade relationship at the sub-regional and sectoral levels, based on empirical data.
The CEC will release a document summarizing the lessons learned from this second symposium sometime this summer.
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