Investment and environmental protection in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement: pathways toward sustainable development
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30545/academo.2026.n3.1535Keywords:
Foreign investment, environmental protection, international investment regimen, sustainable developmentAbstract
The article examines the tension between foreign investment protection (Chapter 14) and environmental protection (Chapter 24) under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), with the aim of uncovering the significant asymmetries embedded in dispute settlement mechanisms and in and in the relative standing of different actors. The article further argues that the international investment protection regime reinforces these asymmetries by privileging capital over the State’s regulatory capacity. From a systemic perspective, the capital–nature tension is analyzed as the result of feedback dynamics between two functionally differentiated subsystems: the economic subsystem, oriented toward capital accumulation, and the environmental subsystem, where environmental protection is pursued through regulatory frameworks and sustainability policies. This study identifies several proposals for reforming the investment protection regime which, if applied to the USMCA—such as strengthened right-to-regulate clausules, minimum standards linked to human rights, effective third-party participation, and codes of conduct for arbitrators—could help rebalance the relationship between investment and environmental protection, reduce systemic tensions, address institutional gaps, and redirect development toward sustainability.
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