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NAFTA | USMCA

North America Free Trade Agreement | US-Mexico-Canada Agreement

NAFTA from below: A review
28-May-2007
The full impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the working people of Mexico, the US and Canada has yet to be assessed, but this slender volume makes a major contribution to our overall understanding of this disastrous economic treaty that was imposed on the people of all three nations by governments which routinely subvert democracy in the service of big capital.
The SPPNA or “deep integration”
28-May-2007 alcaabajo
It’s really not a secret accord. On March 23, 2005, presidents George W. Bush of the United States, Vicente Fox of Mexico, and Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada issued a joint declaration giving life to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPPNA), also known as NAFTA-plus, or North American Free Trade Agreement plus other accords.
NAFTA: Kicked up a notch
26-May-2007 Spero News
The expansion of NAFTA into the Security and Prosperity Partnership reveals the road ahead for other nations entering into free trade agreements. It is not a road most nations — or the US public — would take if they knew where it led.
NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state disputes
23-May-2007 CCPA
Table of all disputes and their status as of 1 March 2007
Dealing with domestic conflicts in FTA negotiations: Lessons from the Korea-Chile FTA and NAFTA
22-May-2007 PECC
The most significant constraint in FTA negotiations is not international negotiation between two governments, but domestic negotiation with various domestic constituencies, such as organized farmers and labor, the national assembly, NGOs, etc. This paper analyzes the domestic conflicts that arise in FTA negotiations in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly focusing on the US, Japan, China and Korea.
Mexican workers call for a continental workers’ campaign for living wages and social justice
20-May-2007 ZNet
A coalition of Mexican unions has now proposed a strategy of struggle that could open up the door to a more class-wide and continental approach to union and workers’ struggles, starting in the three NAFTA countries.
Starving the poor
17-May-2007 The News International
The connection between instability in the Middle East and the cost of feeding a family in the Americas isn’t direct, of course. But as with all international trade, power tilts the balance.
India looks for key to Nafta in Mexico
17-May-2007 Economic Times
India is all set to sign a bilateral investment protection agreement (BIPA) with Mexico on May 21. This will be first such agreement with a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).
Canada: Free trade with the US has failed to close the income gap or create quality jobs
11-Apr-2007 The Canadian
The notion that NAFTA has been good for average Canadians, Americans and Mexicans is a lie. The truth is that NAFTA has been responsible for growing poverty, the creation of a new underclass called the “working poor,” and the concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people.
Mexico, US presidents promise to extend free trade
15-Mar-2007 People’s Daily
Presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico and George W Bush of the United States held a series of meetings on Wednesday, promising to extend the free trade agreement between the two nations.
Don’t repeat NAFTA disaster, trade experts warn
5-Mar-2007 Workday Minnesota
The North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, has been a disaster for workers and families, and even social institutions, in the three participating nations — the United States, Canada and Mexico — labor experts from the three countries told Congress. Not only that, they warned that the pending US-Korea Free Trade Agreement would be a repeat of that NAFTA fiasco.
Mexico: Staple foods at risk from free market
27-Feb-2007 IPS
When the Mexican government negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in force since 1994, it estimated that 14 years of safeguards for its maize and beans would be enough time for local production of these crops to become competitive. But things did not work out that way.
US inspectors to examine trucks on Mexican soil
23-Feb-2007 Houston Chronicle
US safety inspectors will be allowed to inspect trucks on Mexican soil before they enter the United States under a program announced on Thursday that officials said will remove the last barrier to the long-delayed opening of US highways to Mexican truckers.
Policy space for Mexican maize: Protecting agro-biodiversity by promoting rural livelihoods
16-Feb-2007 GDAE
With maize trade scheduled to be fully liberalized under NAFTA in 2008, many farm groups are calling for a renegotiation of the treaty’s agricultural provisions to prevent further damage. This analysis examines the room for alternative policies in Mexico under existing economic and environmental agreements, including NAFTA. It concludes that the Mexican government retains access to many useful policy instruments that could promote rural livelihoods while arresting the losses of important maize diversity. What is lacking is the political will to make use of them.
Mexicans protest sharp hike of tortillas, other food staples
5-Feb-2007 AFP
Thousands of people marched in Mexico City to protest the sharp hike of basic food products, including tortillas, and to demand the government exclude food staples from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). "No corn, no country," the protesters shouted in the first major demonstration to confront conservative President Felipe Calderon since he took office December 1.
NAFTA anxiety: Trade agreement has not produced expected gains in Mexico’s economy
11-Jan-2007 Winston-Salem Journal
As NAFTA’s final provisions take effect next year, tying Mexico’s fortunes more tightly to world markets, how will its economy adjust? And how will the latest wave of trade liberalization alter the calculations for millions of Mexicans wanting to stay home, but constantly feeling the tug of the north?
Mexico shuts the door on GM maize
30-Oct-2006 IPS
Mexico has moved to ban experimental fields of genetically modified (GM) maize. But the gateway into Mexico of transgenic maize, in the form of unlabeled grain imports, remains ajar. In 2008, as part of NAFTA, the quotas and other barriers for the entry of US-grown GM maize and beans into Mexico will be eliminated.
Border Social Forum
28-Oct-2006 Brooklyn Bedouin
Women, men, youth, Indigenous Peoples and Nations, social organizations, unions, farmers, promoters of human rights and defenders of environmental justice in the border states of Mexico and the United States denounce the free trade agreements that attempt to do away with the food sovereignty of nations and peoples.
Canadians, Americans feel losers in NAFTA
11-Oct-2006 Angus-Reid
According to a poll by Ipsos-Reid for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Canada Institute on North American Issues, 63 per cent of Canadian respondents and 53 per cent of American respondents believe their respective countries were losers as a result of the commerce agreement.
Revisiting NAFTA: Still not working for North America’s workers
11-Oct-2006 EPI
NAFTA should be seen not as a stand-alone treaty, but as part of a long-term campaign by the conservative business interests in all three countries to rip up their respective domestic social contract.