

NAFTA

NAFTA — the North American Free Trade Agreement — is a comprehensive, groundbreaking free trade and investment agreement which took effect on 1 January 1994, involving the governments of Canada, Mexico and the USA.
It is an expansion of the 1989 Canada-US Trade Agreement (CUSTA) and is seen as a landmark in setting higher standards in a range of areas, including agriculture, investment, intellectual property, and services.
NAFTA, dubbed a “death sentence” for Mexico’s campesinos and Indigenous Peoples, has led to strong and sustained resistance from a broad spectrum of Mexico’s population. It was one of the catalysts for the Zapatista uprising. Since it came into effect, cheap, subsidized US corn has flooded the market, sold at prices below the cost of production, with which campesinos cannot compete.
Almost two million jobs were lost in the agriculture sector in Mexico in the first ten years, one million in the corn production only. This has led to massive displacement, poverty, and hunger.
NAFTA disputes - in which an investor from one signatory country can sue the government of another signatory country for actions or omissions which it claims to interfere with its right to make a profit - have raised concerns about the way in which the agreement furthers the interests of transnational corporations, and limits the capacity of governments to regulate the economy for social, environmental or other reasons.
Mexico and Canada have been sued respectively 18 times and 25 times, mostly from US investors. In 2000, for instance, Mexico had to pay US$16 million to Metalclad, a waste management corporation, for not having granted a construction permit for a toxic waste facility.
NAFTA has also been criticised for boosting low wage and working conditions jobs, especially along the US-Mexico border, where over 3,000 maquiladoras employ over a million Mexicans, mostly women who earn about US$5 a day.
On 1 January 2008, the last agricultural tariffs were eliminated under NAFTA and small farm organizations in Mexico declared “all-out war” on the trade agreement, arguing that the country’s food sovereignty and security are in peril. Massive peasant demonstrations against NAFTA were held throughout Mexico in early 2008.
NAFTA was a key focus of the US 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, who called for its termination. Instead the newly elected US administration decided to tweak the trade deal and officially started the renegotiation process in May 2017.
Many large corporations have submitted their wish list for the new treaty, calling for more liberalisation and stronger protections for their interests. In opposition, civil society groups have claimed Trump is trying to make it even worse. On 26-27 May 2017, many groups met in Mexico City and called for the construction of a new model of integration, cooperation and exchange among nations that respects human, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights.
Talks are expected to start in August 2017.
last update: July 2017
Articles
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19-Apr-2018 Bloomberg Canadian opposition to Nafta’s chapter 11 gives Trudeau leeway
Dislike of investor-state dispute mechanism appears widespread. Public consultation files detail what Trudeau team was told. -
16-Apr-2018 El Heraldo Pactan apurar el TLCAN sin plazos fatales; México, EU y Canadá
México, EU y Canadá acelerarán la renegociación del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte (TLCAN), sin que para concretarlo haya una fecha fatal, publicó Excelsior. -
12-Apr-2018 EFF Solutions for a stalled NAFTA: Stop pushing so hard on IP, and release the text
Although advances have been made in some chapters, reports suggest that virtually the whole of the agreement’s IP chapter remains up in the air. -
11-Apr-2018 IATP NAFTA: New protections for "too big to fail" banks
The financial industry’s demands for a “modernized” financial services chapter of the North American Free Trade Agreement have been overlooked -
9-Apr-2018 La Jornada Descarta Guajardo acuerdo sobre TLCAN esta semana
El secretario de Economía de México dijo el lunes que no hay condiciones para que se llegue a un acuerdo definitivo esta semana sobre el TLCAN, pero que hay grandes probabilidades de que se logre para la primera semana de mayo. -
9-Apr-2018 La Jornada México dejó de ser autosuficiente en la producción de arroz por TLCAN
México dejó de ser autosuficiente en la producción de arroz desde que entró en vigor el Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte (TLCAN) pues no se le “protegió” como a otros granos básicos y a la fecha 80 por ciento del grano del consumo nacional se cubre con importaciones de otros países, que van desde Estados Unidos hasta Filipinas o Vietnam. -
9-Apr-2018 Investing TLCAN: Inversionistas de Oro Negro buscan arbitraje contra México
Un grupo de inversionistas de Integradora de Servicios Petroleros Oro Negro, una empresa que buscaba convertirse en líder en el sector de servicios petroleros en el país, activó un proceso para someter a México a un juicio de arbitraje, en el marco del TLCAN. -
9-Apr-2018 El Heraldo Rompe Dal-Tile con Interceramic, demandaría a México en TLCAN por rechazar arbitraje y acusa a jueza
La firma norteña Internacional de Cerámica, mejor conocida como Interceramic, está involucrada en una controversia con su socia estadounidense Dal-Tile Corporation a propósito de la disolución de su sociedad. -
9-Apr-2018 Reuters No NAFTA deal in principle to be announced at Lima summit - sources
Talks to rework NAFTA are not advanced enough for the United States, Mexico and Canada to announce a deal “in principle” at this month’s Summit of the Americas in Lima, according to two people familiar with matter. -
6-Apr-2018 Financial Post Trump said to soften key NAFTA demand on regional car content, but target may still be hard to reach
The US proposal would distinguish between different NAFTA car parts by grouping them into five categories, some of which would have a lower requirement for North American content or none at all -
4-Apr-2018 Bloomberg Looming deadlines explain why Trump is hurrying for a Nafta deal
Trump said to want to announce framework Nafta deal next week. Observers say it’s probably too late to pass in this Congress. -
3-Apr-2018 Bangor Daily News Feeding obesity in Trump’s new NAFTA
This anti-labeling policy is unnecessary and inappropriate in a trade agreement, and it’s downright dangerous for our nation’s health. -
3-Apr-2018 Iowa Farmer Today Progress made on biotech during seventh NAFTA round
Negotiators closed the chapter on good regulatory practices, the sixth chapter to be completed. They have also finished on the sanitary-phytosanitary measures chapter. All three countries also agreed to establish a formal energy chapter. -
30-Mar-2018 BNN Higher auto wages the centrepiece of major US NAFTA proposal
Mexican workers’ wages are at the heart of a major proposal from the United States aimed at breaking through an impasse on automobiles and securing a new North American Free Trade Agreement. -
29-Mar-2018 Public Citizen Renegociación del TLCAN: Amenazas a medicinas asequibles
El TLCAN de 1993 fue el primer acuerdo “comercial” que incluyó nuevos poderes de monopolio para las grandes compañías farmacéuticas. -
29-Mar-2018 Public Citizen Renegotiating NAFTA: Threats to affordable medicines
NAFTA was the first “trade” agreement that included new monopoly powers for Big Pharma companies. -
29-Mar-2018 Tele Trader Canada rejects US food packaging proposals in NAFTA talks
Canada’s chief representative stated that the proposals regarding food packaging brought up by the United States are not acceptable to his country, which wants to retain the ability to put warning labels on junk food to combat obesity. -
26-Mar-2018 ICTSD El nuevo NAFTA y los derechos humanos
La revisión del NAFTA 2.0 debe contemplar las reformas constitucionales expresas en materia de derechos humanos -
24-Mar-2018 Sold down the Yangtze An example of regulatory chill
The case of Ethyl v. Canada. -
22-Mar-2018 Bloomberg Lobbyists want to use Nafta to fast-track Trump’s agenda
Lobbyists in Washington are using the deal’s rewrite to advance a broad legislative agenda making it easier for US companies to build factories, move cargo and export coal.
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NAFTA Portal
IATP’s NAFTA Portal gathering over 25 years of research and analysis -
NAFTA Secretariat
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Partenariat nord-américain pour la sécurité et la prospérité (PSP)
Bilingual activist website on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) -
Replace NAFTA
Negotiated behind closed doors with hundreds of corporate advisors, NAFTA has caused mass job loss and pushed down wages nationwide. -
Sin maiz, no hay pais
Campaña Nacional en defensa de la Soberanía Alimentaria y la reactivación del Campo mexicano -
Stop the SPP! Arrêter le PSP!
The Outaouais Ottawa Stop SPP coalition consists of individuals and groups who have come together to mobilize for the Bush-Harper-Calderon meeting in Montebello, Quebec on August 18-21, 2007. -
Tribunal Permanente de los Pueblos (TPP) México
El TPP México tiene como finalidad visibilizar la situación de violencia estructural imperante vivida en México a raíz de la firma de numerosos tratados del libre comercio, e intentar desnudar los mecanismos de simulación y desvío de poder que sistemáticamente ejerce el Estado mexicano para mantener en pie dicha política económica. -
USTR: Comments on NAFTA renegotiation
USTR page for public comments of negotiating objectives regarding modernization of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico