[ad_1]
After the United States, Canada, and Mexico agreed to a new trade agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) late Sunday night, Trump announced that the new agreement was:truly historic news for our nation and the world. "
However, many activists and environmentalists already criticize the new agreement, dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), calling it a victory for big business and polluters at the expense of workers and the planet.
"This agreement is a giant leap for people, communities and the environment," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, said in a statement.
She explained that the USMCA would register and globalize Trump's deregulation policy into a business pact that would survive the administration and jeopardize future efforts to protect consumers, workers and the public. ;environment."
In many ways, the new agreement promises to deepen the economic and environmental crises of NAFTA.
In the shadow of NAFTA
Trump criticized NAFTA, implemented under Bill Clinton in 1994, calling it "worst trade deal ever concluded. "Yet for decades, activists in the hemisphere have denounced the agreement as terrible for workers, small farms and the environment.
"Most people do not know how bad NAFTA was for Mexico," said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Political Research. told Al Jazeera. "But a quarter of a century after NAFTA, Mexican wages are about the same as in 1980, about 20 million more people live in poverty, five million were displaced from the country. agriculture because of NAFTA tariff policy, and economic growth in Mexico is around 15%. from 20 countries in Latin America. "
NAFTA has also had a devastating impact on American workers.
"Americans have been suffering from the rigged rules of NAFTA for decades," said Lori Wallach, director of Global Citiz Watch, Public Citizen, said in a statement.
"Nearly one million jobs in the United States have been certified by the government as lost due to NAFTA, with NAFTA helping companies to outsource more of their jobs. jobs in Mexico every week, "she explained. "The downward pressure on US workers' wages caused by outsourcing NAFTA has only intensified when Mexican wages have fallen in real terms since NAFTA, wages Mexican manufacturers are now 40% lower than those in coastal China. "
Winning new contract for Monsanto and polluters
The new replacement for NAFTA is seen as a victory for Trump and the various industries likely to benefit from the deal.
Mike Sommers, chief of the American Petroleum Institute, the largest oil and gas lobby in the country, supports the deal, saying it"Help keep the US energy revolution going."
Yet activists and environmental organizers were not so famous.
"The [USMCA] has huge gifts in the agrochemical industry that pave the way for GMOs modified by unregulated genes, override Mexican regulation of GMOs and allow chemical giants like Monsanto and Dow to keep data on the safety of their secret pesticides for 10 years, "said Hauter of Monitoring Food and Water has explained.
"The energy provisions will encourage more pipelines and exports of natural gas and oil, which would further strengthen fracking in the United States and Mexico," she said. "The text also offers polluters new opportunities to challenge and try to remove the proposed environmental protection measures, thereby strengthening Trump's action program for the polluter in the future." 39, commercial agreement. "
Deeper trade policy changes are needed
Other changes with the USMCA have attracted the attention of the labor sector and advocate for a gradual commercial reform.
USMCA in particular abandons investor-state dispute settlement, widely criticized under NAFTA (ISDS), which allows companies to sue countries for discriminatory practices that undermine corporate profits. (In the new agreement, ISDS was deleted between the United States and Canada, but not between the United States and Mexico.)
"It's a major change" Wallach said. "The inclusion of extended investor privileges and powers in the 1993 NAFTA laid the foundation for a new model of a" coup d'état par commerce "agreement that has since been followed."
"Even though this ISDS-compliant administration is preventing a future Democratic president from going back, it is sending a powerful signal to the many countries around the world who are also seeking to escape the heinous regime of terrorism." 39, ISDS, "she explained.
USMCA includes, among other changes, reforms in the auto industry. From 2020, in order to avoid paying tariffs, automotive companies will be needed produce at least 75% of a car in the United States, Mexico or Canada, compared to 62.5% currently. The reform aims to move production away from Asia and other parts of the world.
In addition, as of 2020, 30% of the car's manufacturing must be performed by workers earning at least $ 16 at the hour – about three times the hourly wage of Mexican workers in the automotive sector.
However, the agreement will also expand patents on biologics eight to ten years, which resulted in higher prices for customers and a gain for the pharmaceutical industry.
After the heads of state of the three participating nations sign the USMCA, he will travel to the US Congress for a vote early next year. Critics urge Congress to reject the new agreement and push for deeper structural reforms.
"America's failed trade policies that have dramatically increased corporate power and harmed workers, consumers and the environment require a complete transformation," Wallach said. "A set of final renegotiations that would stop the permanent damage of NAFTA and begin the process of replacing the failed US trade agreement model could get broad support."
Benjamin DanglShe holds a doctorate in Latin American History from McGill University, worked as a journalist for more than ten years in Latin America, writing for The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Nation and others. Vice. He is the author of the books The price of fire: wars for resources and social movements in Bolivia, Dancing with Dynamite: social movements and states in Latin Americaand the next ones The Five-hundred Years Rebellion: Indigenous Movements and Decolonization of History in Bolivia, all with AK Press. Dangl edits TowardFreedom.org, a progressive perspective on world events and teaches journalism at Champlain College, Vermont. Send an email to BenDangl (at) gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @BenDangl.
[ad_2]Source link
