Pacific trade talks fail to address environmental concerns -groups

By Krista Hughes

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - An ambitious trade pact being negotiated among Pacific Rim nations fails to properly protect endangered species and could undermine existing safeguards for the environment, environmental groups said on Wednesday.

Documents released by the whistle-blowing group WikiLeaks show countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) did not plan to sanction trading partners who break environmental promises - an issue that has caused a rift between the United States and others in the bloc and is an obstacle to finalizing the deal.

The TPP would cover almost 40 percent of the global economy and create a free trade zone reaching from North America to Japan and New Zealand, and the United States is keen to wrap up talks in the coming months.

But the World Wildlife Fund said the draft text of the environment chapter, which was among the documents released by WikiLeaks, lacked teeth and showed countries were backsliding on past promises and their responsibility to stamp out trade in endangered species.

"The most glaring omission is the lack of fully enforceable environmental provisions," WWF senior program officer Vanessa Dick said.

"If parties do not meet obligations within the environment chapter, then there is no enforceability, there would be no applicable sanctions."

The leaked documents, dated Nov. 24, 2013, include a report from the chair of the TPP's environment working group urging further compromise to resolve the stalemate, including over the "particularly challenging" issue of dispute resolution.

"While the chair sought to accommodate all the concerns and red lines that were identified by parties regarding the issues in the text, many of the red lines for some parties were in direct opposition to the red lines expressed by other parties," the report said.

"It bears emphasizing that it is these differences that have prevented the Environment Working Group from reaching agreement on all aspects of the chapter."

The draft text shows a clash between the United States and other countries - Australia, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Chile, Peru, New Zealand and Singapore - over how to proceed if pledges are not met.

The draft text, as released by WikiLeaks, states that at the end of consultations and arbitration, parties should come up with a "mutually satisfactory action plan."

According to the chair's report, all countries were on board with the process except the United States, which wanted environmental breaches to be treated like commercial breaches, including the option of trade sanctions - something environmental groups say is essential to enforce TPP promises.

The United States also wanted to include a list of specific multilateral agreements on environmental issues, such as ozone depletion and whaling, in the text but the move was opposed by most other countries.

In other criticism, the WWF, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council said the draft did not contain a ban on shark-finning or oblige countries to act to stop illegal trade in threatened and endangered plants and animals.

Bans on fishing subsidies would apply only to species which are already over-fished, whereas environmental groups want a ban on all subsidies that contribute to over-fishing.

"This draft chapter falls flat on every single one of our issues - oceans, fish, wildlife, and forest protections - and in fact, rolls back on the progress made in past free trade pacts," Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in a joint release from the three groups.

In a blog post, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said it would insist on making the environmental pledges binding. "Environmental stewardship is a core American value, and we will insist on a robust, fully enforceable environment chapter in the TPP or we will not come to agreement," the post said.

A spokeswoman for New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser told the New Zealand Herald the TPP environment chapter would "promote high standards of environmental protection, and enhance the capacity of TPP members to address trade-related environment issues".

TPP negotiators last met in December, with outstanding issues including intellectual property, agricultural tariffs and state-owned enterprises.

(Reporting by Krista Hughes; Editing by Paul Simao)

((krista.hughes@thomsonreuters.com)(+1 202 354 5854)(Reuters Messaging: krista.hughes.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: USA TRADE/TPP