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Paper No. (3)

Development and Environment: the impact of globalization of free trade on the environment in Jordan

This paper discusses the effect of global trade liberalization on the Jordanian environment in particular via specifying the potential effects resulting from the signing of the free trade agreement between Jordan and the USA, and before that Jordan's admission to the World Trade Organization and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. The paper traces the appearance of the trade-environment dichotomy first from the demonstrations in Seattle in 1999 and analysis the environmental anti-globalization thoughts which was based on six main issues, the effect of WTO rules on Multilateral environmental agreements and national environmental standards, natural resource utilization, establishment of " pollution havens", genetically modified organisms, biopiracy and intellectual property rights.

Moreover, the paper discusses the environmental features of the Jordan-USA free trade agreement and the importance of having environmental provisions within the official text of the agreement. The paper presents also the main potential effects of implementing the free trade agreement on Jordanian environment focusing on institutional and legislative framework, water resource exploitation, natural resources, air quality, solid and hazardous wastes, energy resources, marine resources, land use and technology transfer.

The paper perceives globalization as a chance to improve the environmental situation in Jordan via implementing environmental reforms mainly by establishing a specialized and technical Ministry of Environment that has credibility and political power. Other reforms suggested by the paper include: Participation of civil society representatives, enhancing effective enforcement and environmental monitoring, enhancing investment in environmentally sound technologies, preventing transfer of polluting industries under the objectives of investment, enhancing analytical skills in environmental economics and encouraging the private sector to implement environmental management plans by a system of incentives.

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