Trade mechanisms that reduce or restrict the free flow of ideas and technologies necessary for the protection of the environment and health must be eliminated. Communities, states and nations have the right to set health and other social and environmental standards as well as development priorities as an expression of the desire of societies to protect their present and future well-being. This right must not be considered an unfair trade barrier if principles of non-discrimination, transparency and proportionality are respected. A test to determine if a policy or standard is a trade barrier is whether its effect is to discriminate against a product or a process to protect in an unjustified way domestic producers or to favor the producers of one country over another. The burden of proof in such a case must be placed upon the challenging party to demonstrate that a particular policy or standard is an unfair trade barrier.
People have the right to full access to all scientific information.
Environmental impact assessments, when conducted transparently, are an essential tool in evaluating the wisdom and fairness of proposals for multilateral agreements and in periodically reviewing their effects. International health and other social and environmental standards should be a global floor, but not a ceiling. The role of science is to inform the public on the nature and extent of the risk, but the decision about what level of risk to accept must be made by the public through a transparent and democratic process. Financial and independent technical assistance must be available to enable all countries to meet minimum international standards in accordance with the precautionary principle. Decision-making processes should rely primarily on participatory democracy and not market forces.