Environmental Regulation in Mega Regional Trade Agreements

Environmental protection is one of the most important problems of modern economics and politics. The processes of globalization and regional integration, population growth, the threat of depletion of resource reserves, climate change, the disappearance of certain species of animals and plants are the challenges that every state has to face and find solutions precisely through its environmental policy. Since globalization processes are directly related to the liberalization of trade in goods and services, new mega-regional trade agreements are emerging - agreements covering integration processes between regions, record volumes of the global economy and population that go far beyond creating free trade zones and covering almost all areas of economic cooperation. Mega-regional trade agreements create negative environmental effects - they stimulate the consumption of resources, contribute to an increase in production volumes and, as a result, in the volume of waste and emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Supranational environmental regulation should be a response to these effects.