Political Economy and Environment of North America

Politics in North America extends to economic links, immigration and security. Since Mexico is a developing country while the United States and Canada are developed countries, comparative studies of politics focus on Canada and US. There are significant differences between the political systems of the United States. These include greater power in the upper house of the legislature, a wider scope of authority held by the Supreme Court and the separation power of the legislature and the executive.

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Trade Agreements

North America Agreement on Environmental Cooperation encourages prevention of pollution policies and practices promote sustainable development and enhance compliance with environmental laws. It also promotes transparency and public participation with objectives of improving the environmental performance of each country furthering trilateral cooperation. Furthermore it supports the North America Free Trade Agreement Environmental provision by establishing a level playing field to avoid trade distortion and promote environmental cooperation.

Through National America Agreement on Environmental Cooperation Canada demonstrated its commitment to addressing potential environmental impact from North America trade. The pursuit of environmental cooperation is consistent with highly integrated North America economy. Thus, it supports the protection and promotion of Canada's environmental interest internationally. The agreement also supports the expected results that Canada's relations with other governments and partners are managed in support of environmental priorities. Canada provided leadership besides participating in the implementation of trilateral cooperative Work Program and contributes to the submission of environmental laws in Canada, United States, and Mexico.

North America Free Trade Agreement

This agreement sets rules for international trade and investment between Canada, United States, and Mexico. The agreement is complex and lengthy and includes eight sections with provisions such as protection for foreign investment market access for goods access to government procurement and protection of intellectual property. Intellectual property include patent rights, trademarks and copyrights (Rosenberg, 1995).

Policies

North America especially the United states had fiscal and monetary policies. Fiscal policy considers the changes the government makes to the national budget to influence the economy. The approach to economic policy was laissez-faire until the great depression. The government tried to stay away from economic matters and hoped a balanced budget would be maintained. The monitory policy concerned with the actions of the central bank or other authorities that determine the rate of money supply.

Environmental Disaster

North America has incurred several disasters over the years. Mexico, for instance, had a disaster in the mining industry. The spilling of copper mines into Cananea Mexico Public waterways devastated the local environment and worse there were no signs of any cleanup efforts. In the United States, the disasters that occurred include Alison Carryon massive gas leak and methane leak that sealed California, radioactive spill at the nuclear plant site in New York, and state of emergency which was declared over the natural gas leak in United States California.

Environmental Degradation

North America is one continent that faces great environmental degradation. The USA, for instance, is the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide from burning of fossil This issue is troubling the US due to lack of initiatives to curb this (Brulle, 2000) Also, reliance on nuclear energy has caused accidents in the United States most notably the three-mile island accident in 1979.Initiatives to improve this environmental situation of nuclear safety is governed by federal regulation and is continuously studied by Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Reference

Brule, R. J. (2000). The agency, democracy, and nature: The U.S. environmental movement from a critical theory perspective. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.: MIT Press.

Rosenberg, J. M. (1995). Encyclopedia of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the New American Community, and Latin-American Trade. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.

United Nations. (2006). Environmental indicators for North America. Nairobi: UNEP.