Do bilateral agreements help to improve the environmental behavior of Canadian firms in oil and mining producing countries: an investigation of Latin America

Abstract

Over the past decades, bilateral and multilateral environmental agreements have contributed to positive and progressive economic, social and environmental changes in the international community, however those agreements have yielded modest results because they appear to be increasingly slow and polarized, because countries face very different issues. This paper will attempt to identify whether free trade agreements (FTA’s) really help to improve the environmental performance of Canadian oil and mining firms working in Latin America, analyzing to what extent firms achieve environmental compliance of these agreements in the region. First, a brief history of Canada’s commitment in Latin America and an overview of Canada’s current environmental policy will be presented. After that, this present paper will then consider the different viewpoints found in the related literature on whether countries are interdependent to each other especially after FTAs are ratified, concluding with some recommendations for the compliance of the regulations. Keywords: Free Trade Agreements, oil sector, mining sector, interdependence, Canada, Latin America, Global Governance.