Letter: Consider environment in trade pacts

I appreciate the finishing of the USMCA trade agreement. The framework will create direction, rules and penalties to pave a road forward. Something not addressed in the USMCA is the abuse of the environment, particularly rivers and air.

Ten rivers, according to research, contribute the lion’s share of chemicals and plastic polluting the ocean.

While many of them flow through multiple countries making accountability difficult, quite a few go primarily through industrial powerhouses like China, Indonesia, India, Italy and the United States (nitrates from agriculture).

Mercury, arsenic and sulfur from the burning of dirty coal high in trace elements are sprinkling the world with poison. America is spending billions cleaning up the scrubbers on coal-fired plants while using coal exceptionally low in trace elements. Not so for the rest of the world, particularly new plants financed and built by China.

Dirty coal is much cheaper to fuel energy plants than natural gas or clean coal, and China is building hundreds of them all over the world.

Tough language in trade agreements regarding river and atmosphere abuse would go a long way in leveling the industrial playing field while cleaning up the environment.

Call it an environmental performance tariff.