A research project linking trade measures in economic, environmental and social regimes toward sustainability in the Americas.
To support sustainable development, the economic, environmental and; social aspects of the Americas integration process should respect the "Winnipeg Principles," a document drafted by a nine-member working group that addresses the following issues when incorporating sustainable development into trade matters: efficiency and cost internalization; environmental integrity; equity; science and precaution; international co-operation; subsidiarity; and openness. Where it is not possible to accommodate some of these principles in the framework of trade negotiations, they must be addressed in other parts of integration. The agenda of trade liberalization must be linked with the agendas for social and environmental improvement in the Americas. It has been done before, in existing sub-regional and bi-lateral co-operation and integration agreements in the Western Hemisphere. These three studies, developed by a hemispheric working group
guided by expert advisors, finds ways for new integration rules to support sustainability in the Americas.
In 1988, the OAS General Assembly adopted the Protocol of San Salvador, an Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights, establishing economic, social and cultural rights in the region. Has enough progress has been made to "eradicate poverty and discrimination" in the Western Hemisphere? Can hemispheric integration support the realization of the rights enshrined in the Protocol? Can it contribute to a broader hemispheric development co-operation agenda, and develop new hemispheric social instruments? If so, what are the best models for such a new regime? How could this regime be most coherent and effective, and help to ensure that trade and social policies are mutually supportive? How can social policy cooperation agreements in the Americas, especially in their use of trade measures for social purposes, support the broader goals of sustainable development? This third and final report, Social Rules and Sustainability in the Americas, uses
a "rights-based approach" to examine social regimes in the Western Hemisphere and develop recommendations for future hemispheric co-operation on social policy in the context of advancing FTAA negotiations. It discusses and surveys the Inter-American Human Rights System, the Pan-American Health System and other Organization of American States programs, sub-regional social co-operation instruments on health, human rights (including socio-laboural rights), social security, gender and indigenous peoples and corporate social responsibility from across the Americas. Extending the Winnipeg Principles analysis to social regimes, it proposes ways that the complex and inter-related international social regimes can be strengthened, for an Americas integration that can better support equitable sustainable development.
SRSA Project Summary (244 kb) 
Parallel to the FTAA negotiations, environment ministers of the Americas met for the first time at Montreal in 2001 to discuss hemispheric co-operation on ecological issues. Countries of the Americas are parties to sub-regional environmental cooperation arrangements, members of the UNEP Forum of LAC Environment Ministers, and parties to multi-lateral environmental accords (MEAs) which use trade measures, successfully, to support environmental goals. How can new trade policies support environmental protection in the Americas? Can the integration process lead to a new, strengthened hemispheric ecological cooperation agenda? If so, what are the key problems that require solutions, which instruments already exist and what are the prospects for a new regime, or even a network of regimes? In ‘Ecological Rules and Sustainability in the Americas’, a hemispheric team applied the Winnipeg Principles to a network of over 272 relevant global, hemispheric, sub-regional and
bi-lateral environmental instruments, and provide recommendations for new ecological co-operation agendas in the Americas.
ERSA Project Summary (285 kb)
In 1998 at the Summit of the Americas, heads of state from 34 countries launched negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). It is possible to integrate sustainability into a trade agreement. This has been done before through law, policy and projects across the Americas at the hemispheric, sub-regional and bi-lateral levels. Many examples abound that can be analyzed and built upon, some of which hold the potential to provide proven and innovative solutions to recurring problems. In "Trade Rules and Sustainability in the Americas," a hemispheric team used the Winnipeg Principles to develop recommendations for the FTAA and the hemispheric integration process, and researched ways in which sustainability priorities can be implemented. The project report presents a tool kit of policy options to broaden the debate.
TRSA Project Summary (251 kb)
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