El medio ambiente en la minería

27 GARYNASH industries. This can become a11 the more evident where countries or trading blocs differ in their policies on the environment. Allowme to illustrate by referring to sorne of the policy instruments that might be or are being used as trade barriers. To begin, conservation objeetives could lead to export or import restrictions on a variety of products, such as furs and ivory. Policies for the conservation ofcertain natural resources or the biodiversity of ecological systems which are not based on sound scientific understandings could lead to increasing and possibly unjustified restrictions on production and trade.This could be especialIy so if governments treat the extraction of natural resources as a cost against their country's Gross National Product. This is a subjeet being seriously considered by govemments and international agencies, including the World Bank and the United Nations. 1wiU return to this subjeet later in my presentation. As well, lower environmental standards in one country can frustrate the environmental objeetives of another country. Sometimes, such frustrated countries are tempted to impose their own standards on pollutirigmuntries by using tariffs and levies. This issue has arisen in the U.S. Congress, where reference was made to imposing import taxes on products associated with production processes having standards less stringent than that of the U.S. Environmental Proteetion Agency. In the language ofU.S. trade negotiations, this is referred to as "creating a level playing field". It might also be ealled the extra-territorial application of domestic polides and standards. A variation of this is to restriet the importation of goods (through quotas or baliS) because of the processes used in their production.For example, there is a campaign underway in Europe, particularly in Germany, that would see lumber imports from Canada banned because environmentalists take excep– tion to how forests are harvested in the Pacific coast of Canada. It can easily be seen that a European action, taken to force North American lumber companies to act in a European-defmed environmenta11y acceptable way, would also have highly proteetive results for European paper and lumber companies. Other environmentalIy-based schemes that can affeet trade and competition include government purchasing programs. For example, sorne U.S. states require that newsprint contain a certain percentage of recycled paper, and the U.S. Congress has discussed minimizing the use of virgin materials in favour of recycled products. The environmental priority can also be refleeted in other government policies affeeting competition, such as promoting programs that encourage the pur– chase of produets which have been labelled "environmentally friendly".