Discussion of free trade’s environmental effects on developing countries often features the clash of two opposing yet widely held beliefs. According to one, environmental protection inevitably improves as free trade raises per-capita income. According to the other, liberalized trade turns developing nations into “pollution havens” as heavily polluting industries flock to these countries to escape strict environmental regulation. Both views are put to the test in a new book by Kevin Gallagher, an assistant professor of international relations at Boston University and a research associate at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute. Gallagher examines Mexican environmental trends from 1985 to 1999. In that period, which included the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), Mexico transformed itself from one of the world’s most closed economies to one of the most open. Gallagher discussed his findings recently with EcoAméricas Editor George Hatch. [Log in to read more]

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