Abstract
Korea-China FTA and Korea-U.S. FTA are the most significant FTA in volume and economic effect for Korea's perspective. Developed countries have dealt with environmental issues one of the main issues in FTA negotiation, while developing countries have been reluctant to it. Both Korea-China FTA and Korea-U.S. FTA have separate environment chapter respectively. A separate environment chapter was firstly introduced in Korea-U.S. for Korea's perspective. Both environment chapters provide high level of environment protection, recognition of multilateral environmental agreements, enforcement of environmental laws, and environmental cooperation. Both environment chapters require that each party make effort to improve environmental laws and measures. Korea-China FTA provides establishment a "Committee on Environment and Trade", and Korea-U.S. FTA provides establishment a "Environment Council" to oversee the implementation of environment clauses. Korea-China FTA and Korea-U.S. FTA have very similar provisions on environment and trade, and are expected to contribute to enhancing environment protection. However, a lot of provisions are somewhat declaratory rather than mandatory. Therefore, further environmental cooperation is encouraged to achieve the goals and objectives of the environment clauses and FTA.
