Environmental Sustainability in Trade: Evaluation of the Potential Industrial Environmental Impacts of the FTAA

This study is an attempt to estimate the industrial environmental impacts of the FTAA in Brazil. The paper starts by explaining the basis of the study"s theoretical motivations. Next, it analyzes the growing effectiveness of the Brazilian environmental legal framework and discusses the findings of Mendes (1994) and Young (2002), showing that industrial environmental control costs are, on average, low and do not seem to restrict competitiveness.