EDITORIAL

EPL is grateful for the awareness and journalistic precision of Melissa Blue Sky and Marie Mekosh of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) for updating us on the status of one of the most interesting aspects of the 2006 US-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement - lauded as "the first bilateral trade agreement to recognize and seek to address the pervasive issue of illegal logging", but also containing an important mechanism to address both countries' general implementation/enforcement of all of their environmental laws ("Open to the Public: Independent Body Begins Reviewing Complaints about Enforcement of US & Peru Environmental Laws", online at https://www.ciel.org/open-public-independent-body-begins-reviewing-complaints-enforcement-usperu-environmental-laws/). The most important aspect of this Secretariat, however, remains its potential: it offers a governmentally approved, independent international investigative body with the power to investigate the claims and publicly report the investigation results to the Council, which is authorised to make recommendations. While many international environmental instruments around the world require that the countries enact relevant laws that impose environmental obligations and formally recognise and support environmental rights, the US-Peru Trade Agreement goes further.