Linking trade growth and the environment: one lawmaker's view.

• Author: de la Garza, Kika
• Position: Trade and the Environment

The proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) presents something of a dilemma for Americans living along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Communities Along the border will generally benefit economically from the lowering of trade harriers between the United States and Mexico. Yet the economic growth spurred by NAFTA is likely to exacerbate a number of already serious environmental problems that exist on both sides of the two-thousand-mile border, ranging from inadequate wastewater treatment to the loss of wildlife habitat.

Border residents worry that, if and when NAFTA is approved, the U.S. arid Mexican governments will talk a good game about improving and protecting environmental quality in the region. But when it comes to actually finding the money necessary to get the job done, both will come up short. It's a scenario that has been played out in the U.S. Congress before.

In January 1992, President George Bush requested $243 million in new spending for a border environmental initiative. Trouble is the Republican Bush Administration wanted to pay for its new program by cutting programs favored by the Democratic-controlled Congress. Not surprisingly, President Bush's proposal garnered little enthusiasm and only $25 million in actual funding.

The border communities of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California deserve more than a promise. President Bill Clinton and the Democratic-led 103rd Congress must do better.

How can the new Administration and the Congress avoid a repeat of 1992?

One alternative that merits consideration is to allow both the United States and Mexico to impose a nontrade distorting fee on goods entering their country and dedicate this revenue solely to funding environmental cleanup and infrastructure projects along the border region.

Last year I suggested that an existing U.S. customs user fee be converted into a border environmental and infrastructure fee. As it stands now, the U.S. Customs Merchandise Processing Fee. (MPF) and its Mexican counterpart, the Derecho de Tramite Aduanero, are slated for elimination under the proposed NAFTA by June 30, 1999. The MPF is assessed on commercial...