Common use of Specific Commitments Clause in Contracts

Specific Commitments. 1. Each Party shall endeavor to ensure that its laws and policies provide for and encourage high levels of environmental protection and of sustainable use and conservation of its natural resources. Each Party shall also strive to continue improving its protection levels on those matters. 2. Each Party shall endeavor to maintain its laws, regulations, and policies consistent and in compliance with multilateral environmental agreements (hereinafter referred to as "MEAs") to which it is a party, as well as with international efforts towards achieving sustainable development. 3. The Parties recognize that it is inappropriate to promote trade or investments by weakening or reducing the protections afforded in their environmental laws. Accordingly, neither Party shall waive or otherwise derogate from, or offer to waive or otherwise derogate from, such laws in a manner that weakens or reduces the protections afforded in those laws as an incentive to promote trade or investment between the Parties. The Parties recognize that it is inappropriate to use their own laws, regulations and policies in a manner that constitutes a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between the Parties or a disguised restriction on trade or investment. 4. The Parties recognize the importance that their environmental legislations provide for a fair and transparent public participation mechanism, and therefore the Parties will promote public participation during the whole process of designing, implementing, and evaluating, environmental projects, policies, and programs, in accordance with their national legislations towards that end. Article 165. Biological Diversity