Protecting oceans, forests, and wildlife by putting in place strong commitments to preserve the marine environment, promote conservation, and combat wildlife trafficking.
Environmental stewardship is a core value and advancing environmental protection and conservation efforts across the Asia-Pacific region is a key priority for the United States in TPP. In addition to core environment obligations, we are seeking trailblazing, first-ever conservation proposals to address some of the region’s most urgent environmental challenges.
OBJECTIVES
- Protect and conserve flora and fauna, including through action by countries to combat illegal wildlife and timber trafficking.•
- Promote sustainable fisheries management.
- Establish rules to prohibit some of the most harmful fisheries subsidies, such as those that contribute to overfishing.
- Promote long-term conservation of marine species, including sharks, sea turtles, seabirds and marine mammals.
- Combat illegal fishing, including by implementing port state measures and supporting increased monitoring and surveillance.
- Establish strong and enforceable environment obligations, subject to the same dispute settlement mechanism as other obligations in TPP.
- Secure commitments to effectively enforce domestic environmental laws, including laws that implement multilateral environmental Agreements, and commitments not to waive or derogate from the protections afforded in environmental laws for the purpose of encouraging trade or investment.
- Ensure transparency related to the implementation and enforcement of the environment commitments, including by requiring TPP countries to provide opportunities for public participation.
- Require TPP countries to ensure access to fair, equitable and transparent administrative and judicial proceedings for enforcing their environmental laws, and provide appropriate sanctions or remedies for violations of their environmental laws.
- Establish a framework for conducting, reviewing, and evaluating cooperative activities that support implementation of the environment commitments, and for public participation in these activities.
- Establish a senior-level Environment Committee, which will meet regularly to oversee implementation of environment commitments, with opportunities for public participation in the process.
In addition to the environment chapter’s commitments, in the TPP we are seeking to:
- Eliminate tariffs on environmental goods such as solar panels, wind turbines, water treatment systems, and air quality equipment.
- Facilitate trade in environmental goods and services.
RESOURCES
For more information on trade and the environment, visit WWW.USTR.GOV/ISSUE-AREAS/ENVIRONMENT
