Background paper
Description
This report reviews the economic and environmental predictions that have been made so far regarding the environmental impacts of agricultural trade liberalization in North America.
The report reviews and compares ex ante analyses and ex post analyses of NAFTA, with the aim of improving upcoming modeling for the free trade agreement of the Americas (FTAA). General trends of agricultural trade in the NAFTA countries are also presented. A literature review of models is then used to predict possible economic and environmental impacts of trade liberalization. The report concludes with a review of potential model development strategies to improve predictions of environmental impact following trade liberalization.