Trade and Environment Seminar

May 29-June 2, 2012

The Environmental Law Summer Session and the Organization of American States Department of Sustainable Development are hosting a joint seminar focusing on capacity-building in the area of Trade and Environment in the Americas. The Seminar will consist of a series of modules taught by leading practitioners from the Americas and will conclude with a trade simulation exercise.

The schedule for the 2012 Trade and Environment Seminar is still being developed. More information about the agenda, materials, site visit, receptions, etc. is forthcoming. The information below is from last year's Trade and Environment Seminar.

The course materials can be found here: http://www.oas.org/dsd/Tool-kit/2012/default.htm

PAST SEMINARS

June 20-24, 2011

For a detailed schedule of the seminar including links to descriptions of each module and the readings that accompany each module, please visit the Trade and Environment Seminar website. The modules focus on a variety of topics including: Trade and Environment - Law and Policy; the Intersection between Trade and the Environment; Negotiating Agreements; Environmental Dimensions of International Trade; Enforcement of Trade-Related Environmental Obligations; and Post-Negotiation Issues. The seminar will conclude with a Negotiation Simulation Exercise.

During the course of the seminar, the participants will have an opportunity to go on a Site Visit to the Domino Sugar Company in Baltimore, Maryland.

The course will also include two receptions, a welcome reception (more details below) and a closing reception that will be held in conjunction with WCL's Conference on "Challenges of International Accountability: Lessons from Independent Accountability Mechanisms," which was co-sponsored by the World Bank Inspection Panel. At the closing reception, participants will have the opportunity to interact with other lawyers and experts who serve as panel members of the accountability mechanisms at the multilateral development banks.

Please visit the photo gallery to see participants and lecturers from the WCL-OAS Trade and Environment Seminar.

Albert R. Ramdin, OAS Assistant Secretary General
Date: June 21, 2011
Place: Washington, DC
Credit: Patricia Levia/OAS

Welcome Reception

Additionally, participants had a chance to interact with lawyers, trade and environment specialists, and other professionals at a Welcoming Reception on Tuesday, June 21 at the Organization of American States. Participants were welcomed by the OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin. This reception also allowed participants to interact with participants in another OAS-sponsored course on the WTO. Read the press release. See pictures from the event.

Lecturers

Lecturers include the following leading practitioners from government and non-governmental organizations from throughout the Americas (lecturers are listed in chronological order of the seminar):

Gustavo Alanís Ortega

Gustavo Alanís Ortega is President of the Mexican Environmental Law Center (Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA)). Mr. Alanís, a practicing lawyer, teaches environmental law the Universidad Iberoamericana's law school in Mexico City. He is also co-director of the university's post-graduate diploma program in environmental law and policy. Since August 1993, he has been president of CEMDA, a public interest environmental law organization based in Mexico City. He is also active as a columnist for "Reforma," one of Mexico's most read and influential newspapers. He is a member of the seventh cohort of the Leadership of Environment and Development Program (LEAD) and part of the Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) under the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Mr. Alanís has an LL.M. in international law from the Washington College of Law.

David Hunter

David Hunter is a Professor of Law and the Director of the International Legal Studies Program and the Program on International and Comparative Environmental Law at American University Washington College of Law. He is also the Director of the Environmental Law Summer Session. He is the former Executive Director of the Center for International Environmental Law and was previously an Associate with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide-US, EarthRights International, the Project on Government Oversight, the Bank Information Center, Greenpeace-US, and the Center for Progressive Reform. His research and advocacy work covers a broad range of global environment and development issues. Mr. Hunter is a co-author of International Environmental Law and Policy, currently in its 4th edition. He holds a B.A. in economics and political science from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Rodrigo Martinez

Rodrigo Martinez was born in Colombia and started working for the Department of Sustainable Development at the Organization of American States in late 2007. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, and a Graduate Certificate of Advanced Financial Management, and a Master in Natural Resource Economics from the University of Queensland, Australia. He has experience in areas such as policy analysis, business plan development, information systems, website and database development, e-business and e-commerce, cost-benefit analysis of private reserves, marketing research, trade of natural products, and ecotourism among others. He has worked in IT private companies, environmental NGO's, the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development of Colombia, as a consultant for UNDP, and as a trade and environment researcher at the Faculty of Environmental and Rural Studies of Colombia. Prior to joining DSD, he was coordinating the National Biotrade Watch of Colombia within the Alexander von Humboldt Institute where he developed the Markets Information System and designed the Technology Transfer System of Biotrade for Colombia. He speaks fluent English and Spanish and has working knowledge of Portuguese. Rodrigo's work at the DSD is focused in environmental economics, in particular supporting member States as they develop payment for ecosystem services and also in the linkages of trade and environment.

Claudia de Windt

A lawyer graduated from Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic with a LL.M. in International Legal Studies from American University Washington College of Law, Ms. de Windt has been with the OAS since 2001 as a Legal Specialist for the Department of Sustainable Development and Environment. She leads the Department's work in Environmental Law, Policy, and Good Governance. Her work mainly focuses on the governance aspects of sustainability and on the environmental sustainability of free trade agreements; supporting member States identify the challenges and opportunities for sustainable development derived from economic integration. In addition to supporting the strengthening of institutional-legal frameworks in the hemisphere towards sustainability in trade. Ms. de Windt has experience in legal drafting, negotiations, and international development cooperation projects in different areas, such as international project financing, foreign investment, environmental law, and environmental corporate social responsibility. Prior to coming to OAS, Ms. de Windt was an Associate Attorney for the firm Headrick Rizik Alvarez & Fernández in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where she worked as Counsel for International and local organizations mainly in the areas of contracts, banking, maritime, corporate, and investment law. She was appointed in 1999, by the President of the Dominican Republic as Judicial Interpreter of The Court of First Instance in Santo Domingo. Ms de Windt is admitted to practice in the Dominican Republic and a member of the Dominican Bar Association. She also served as Vice-President of the LL.M. student association at the Washington College of Law in 2000. Her native language is Spanish and she is fluent in English and has working knowledge of French and Portuguese.

Fernando Ocampo

Fernando Ocampo is the Vice Minister of Trade of Costa Rica. He is an accredited lawyer and has a graduate degree in Public Law from the Universidad de Costa Rica. He has a masters degree in International Economic Policy from the London School of Economics and he has continued his studies at the Centre for Trade, Policy and Law in Ottawa, Canada, and at the World Trade Institute in Berne, Switzerland. Mr. Ocampo is a university professor and an international consultant on topics such as international trade and commercial integration. He has offered conferences in more than fifteen countries and has published numerous articles related to international trade He is currently working at the Ministry of International Trade in Costa Rica as the Deputy Chief for Commercial Matters in the negotiation of the Central America-European Union Association Agreement. Fernando Ocampo has engaged in a number of professional activities. He has done research for different national and international institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the Organization of American States, the World Bank, the Academia de Centroamérica, among others, on topics related to international trade, economic integration, and commercial policy. He has been a panelist in seminars and conferences organized by different institutions, and he also provides assessment to governments in areas related to international trade. Mr. Ocampo served as General Director of International Trade of Costa Rica from 2001 to 2005. His main responsibilities included: participation as Chief of the Group of Access to Markets in the framework of the negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement between the Dominican REpublic, Central America, and the United States; coordination of the definition of the national position in the negotiations for the subscription of the free trade agreements with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Panama. He has also been the public officer in charge of coordinating the technical participation of Costa Rica in the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas conformation process and of chairing, in the same forum, the Negotiation Group for Public Sector Procurement. He also led the definition and defense of the Costa Rican position in the Central American integration process with the objective of creating a regional customs union. During 2004, Mr. Ocampo also served as Director of Implementation of International Trade Agreements, where he launched an internal restructuring focusing on internal enforcement. He was responsible for managing and monitoring the functioning of the commercial agreements in place in the country, which include free trade agreements with Mexico, Chile, Canada, and the Dominican REpublic.

César Parga

César Parga is a Senior Trade Specialist at the Department for Trade, Tourism, and Competitiveness of the Organization of American States. Mr. Parga provides technical and analytical support in the fields of intellectual property rights and dispute settlement issues in matters relevant to the work of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and other regional trade arrangements. He also coordinates and participates in training and capacity building initiatives for Latin America and the Caribbean. He is a lawyer who graduated from the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, where he also served as adjunct professor on civil law. He received a LL.M. on Patent and Intellectual Property Rights at the Law School of the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Geoffrey Garver

Geoffrey Garver is an environmental consultant and lecturer in law in Montreal. From 2000 to 2007, he was a senior official at the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation as Director of the Submissions on Enforcement Matters Unit. THe Unit handles assertions by North American citizens that one of the NAFTA countries -- Mexico, the United States, and Canada -- is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law. Previously, he spent nine years with the U.S. Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division as a trial attorney and then an Acting Assistant Chief, handling cases concerning land and natural resource management, water rights, and environmental impact assessment. His major cases included suits dealing with Everglades water quality, winter use and bison management in Yellowstone National Park, and water rights in Idaho and Oregon. He was also part of the U.S. team negotiating with Canada and Mexico toward an agreement on transboundary environmental impact assessment, and he helped develop federal agency guidelines for conducting environmental reviews of trade agreements. From 1993 to 1995, he was special assistant and Senior Policy Counsel to the Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. While with U.S. EPA, he directed the process for revising the U.S. EPA's environmental auditing policy. Before joining the U.S. Justice Department in 1989, he was a judicial clerk for the Hon. Conrad Cyr in the U.S. District Court in Maine. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 1982 and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1987.

Panelists

The discussion of Post-Negotiation Issues will be enhanced by the participation of expert panelists. Panelists include:

Amy Karpel
Amy Karpel is the Director for Environment and Natural Resources at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Since 2004, Amy Karpel has worked in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she has also served as Associate General Counsel. USTR is part of the Executive Office of the President and the U.S. federal agency responsible for developing and implementing U.S. international trade policy. Among other responsibilities, Amy has litigated international trade disputes before the World Trade Organization and negotiated and drafted texts for U.S. free trade agreements with Korea, Peru, Colombia, Oman, Panama, and Central America. Prior to USTR, Amy practiced international trade law as an associate at Stewart and Stewart, a law firm in Washington, DC. Amy is a graduate of American University Washington College of Law in Washington, DC and the Jackson School, University of Washington.

Alejandra Goyenechea
Alejandra Goyenechea is International Counsel at Defenders of Wildlife. Alejandra's primary focus is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and other international trade law issues, with an emphasis on Latin America. She has worked at several international institutions and organizations, and has experience in wildlife policy and broader experience in other environmental areas. During her work with the Mexican government, she represented the Environmental Enforcement Agency at the international level. She also has interned or worked at the Organization of American States, the UNEP North American office, and Baker Botts, a DC law firm. Alejandra earned her law degree at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Mexico. In 2000, she came to DC on a Fullbright scholarship and completed her LL.M. at the American University Washington College of Law.