NAFTA: Trump - renogotiate?

[Oscar]

Notice to renegotiate NAFTA to be issued within days

[ http://canadians.org/blog/notice-renego ... ithin-days ]

January 18, 2017 - 7:29 am

It is expected that the United States will give formal notice to the Canadian government to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) within days of the inauguration of Donald J. Trump on January 20.

The Globe and Mail reports, "Canadian officials say the nominee for commerce secretary [billionaire investor Wilbur Ross] has indicated a formal-notification letter to open negotiations on NAFTA will be sent to Canada and Mexico within days of Friday’s presidential inauguration."

The article highlights, "[Ross] has informed Canada that rules of origin and independent dispute tribunals will be central to talks aimed at resetting the North American free-trade agreement. Remarkably the investor-state dispute panels are reportedly "on Mr. Ross's radar" given "the United States has long complained these independent panels are unaccountable and give too much power to Mexico and Canada".

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow has written, "The investor-state provision grants investors of the continent the right to sue one another’s governments without first pursuing legal action through the country’s legal system. As a result of NAFTA’s ISDS challenges, Canada is now the most sued developed country in the world. Canada has been sued more times than either the U.S. or Mexico. Of the 80 known NAFTA investor-state claims, 37 have been against Canada, 22 have targeted Mexico and 21 have targeted the U.S. The U.S. government has won 11 of its cases and never lost a NAFTA investor-state case or paid any compensation to Canadian or Mexican companies."

Despite this, the Trudeau government has defended the provision stating, "NAFTA Chapter 11 establishes a framework that provides investors with a predictable, rules-based investment climate. While disputes are a normal part of every trade relationship, they represent a very small portion of the billions of dollars in investment that Canada attracts and the billions that Canadian companies invest abroad."

In terms of country of origin rules, The Globe and Mail notes, "[The rules] govern how much content from outside NAFTA a product can contain and still qualify to be shipped duty-free, are specific to each product and spelled out in writing. They cover every kind of good and service, from suits to cars. The Trump administration is expected to take a harder line on exactly what can cross the border duty-free."

In November 2016, The Globe and Mail reported, "[A transition team] memo says on the first day he takes office – Jan. 20, 2017 – he would order the Commerce Department and International Trade Commission to study the ramifications of withdrawing from NAFTA and what would be required legislatively to do so. The memo also says Mr. Trump would then have the U.S. trade representative, his cabinet appointee in this area, notify Canada and Mexico that the United States intends to propose amendments to the accord that could include lumber and country-of-origin labelling. Other areas might include currency manipulation as well as environmental and safety standards."

For an explanation of those specific areas that could be up for negotiation, please read this campaign blog:
[ https://canadians.org/blog/trumps-nafta ... rther-risk ]

With the NAFTA negotiations imminent, the Council of Canadians is calling for:
1- transparency through the entirety of the negotiations – especially in regards to what Trudeau is conceding to Trump to maintain NAFTA
2- meaningful consultations with the general public, as well as consultations and consent from First Nations
3- removal of the controversial Chapter 11 investor-state provision
4- removal of all references to water in NAFTA as a good, service or investment, unless to allow for the specific protection or exclusion of water
5- an exemption from NAFTA's energy proportionality rule in order to meet our Paris climate commitments
6- a North American Auto Pact to ensure that each country receives a proportional share of employment and investment, and that workers have good jobs and fair wages
7- strengthening the exemption of medicare in NAFTA to allow for an expansion of public health care in areas including pharmacare.

For our campaign web-page on NAFTA, please click here:
[ https://canadians.org/nafta ]

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]

[Oscar]

The Canadian Government Should Replace NAFTA, or Scrap it

[ http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=9d9 ... dfddfa046e ]

MEDIA ADVISORY: January 18, 2017

On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the new President of the United States. He has promised that one of his first acts will be to demand that Canada and Mexico renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has signalled that Canada would accede to that request expecting that this country could "improve” NAFTA.

Common Frontiers, a 27 year old coalition of Canadian social organizations, unions, and environmental groups that has been advocating since the negotiation of NAFTA for a fairer trade model for North America has today issued a strongly worded Statement entitled, The Canadian Government Should Replace NAFTA, or Scrap it [ http://psac-sjf.org/canadian-government ... r-scrap-it ]. This document highlights the damage that 23 years of NAFTA has already done to the Canadian economy. It also lists some major demands that coalition members insist must be on the negotiating table in replacing NAFTA with a trade arrangement that puts Canadians and human rights ahead of corporate profits.

The statement follows on the heels of the release of a Tri-national statement by groups from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. rejecting efforts to frame the debate in xenophobic and nationalist terms. They view the NAFTA model as an expansion of corporate power which has failed working people across all three countries.

Janet Eaton from Common Frontiers stated “evidence continues to grow showing corporate-led trade and investment agreements like NAFTA fail to benefit people and democratic governance systems while contributing to environmental decline, exacerbation of climate change, global inequality and economic failures”.

Common Frontiers Statement can be found here:
[ http://psac-sjf.org/canadian-government ... r-scrap-it ]

Tri- National statement can be found here:
[ http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2017/01/18/5442/ ]
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For more information or to arrange an interview:
•Raul Burbano - Program Director -
Common Frontiers, 416 522 8615,
burbano@rogers.com

= = = = =

The Canadian government should replace NAFTA or scrap it

[ http://psac-sjf.org/canadian-government ... r-scrap-it ]

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a trilateral trade agreement between Canada, United States and Mexico that went into effect January 1, 1994. It is the largest agreement of its kind in the world and was implemented in the face of considerable opposition in all three countries.

In the twenty-three years since NAFTA was implemented we have witnessed an unprecedented increase in profits and rights of multinational corporations, underscoring a widening economic inequality in North America. The social and economic consequences on working class people, across all three countries, has been devastating in terms of increased poverty, weakened labour rights and environmental protections, fueling a "race to the bottom" in living standards. Since 2004, 500,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Canada, most of which were permanent, well-paid, and unionized.

People should be angry that NAFTA has served the interest of multinational corporations and pushes policies of deregulation and privatization. Power and privilege is being used to skew the economic system to increase the gap between the richest and poorest people. People in all three countries should be under no illusion about Trump’s rhetoric of renegotiating NAFTA, which seeks to pit workers against workers while giving tax-dodging big businesses more tax breaks, benefiting the corporate elites in USA and further entrenching economic inequality.

NAFTA is the blueprint for the inclusion of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in most other trade deals that have followed. ISDS is a provision that gives multinational corporations the ability to sue governments over regulations they claim will affect their investment, including expected future profits. These anti-democratic, supra national corporate tribunals override the national court systems, eliminating government ability to regulate in the public interest by supporting industries that create good local jobs and by protecting the environment. Canada is already the most sued developed country in the world because of NAFTA’s ISDS process.

Canada’s softwood lumber is one area being targeted by Donald Trump seeking to extract more favourable terms by slapping quotas or limits on Canadian lumber exports to the United States. The softwood lumber dispute is further proof that Canadians stand to lose more than they will gain under Trump’s vision of trade.

Current trade policy is designed to promote the interests of agribusinesses and other multinational corporations over those of small farmers. NAFTA has devastated rural communities and failed to address very real problems of price volatility and environmental sustainability.

NAFTA has had the effect of destroying the ability of over 2 million small scale Mexican farmers to earn a living, forcing many off their lands and across the border in a desperate search for work. The industrial jobs created in Mexico under NAFTA were primarily poorly paid and precarious.

NAFTA is inconsistent with Canada’s commitment to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It does not recognize Indigenous Rights and pushes the boundaries by allowing foreign companies to appropriate and use Indigenous peoples deeply rooted historical identity for trademark and profit.

NAFTA and other such corporate trade deals are incompatible with the Human Rights covenants as set out by the United Nations and ratified by Canada. The right of Canada to respect, protect and fulfill its human rights obligations must be ensured. NAFTA and similar investor-state agreements do not ensure the supremacy of human and cultural rights and in many cases stand in the way of their implementation. These mega-trade agreements, along with corporate tax cuts, are one of several tools, along with incentives to promote deregulation, privatization, and elimination of public services which seek to shift power away from people and governments and toward the corporate sector.

Key demands

We civil society groups from across Canada believe a paradigm shift from the current global economic model is imperative in order to mitigate the threats of economic and environmental disaster. Revision to the terms of the treaty must have at its core the objective establishment of fair trade not free trade and economic relations based on social justice, sovereignty and sustainable development.

•Negotiations to replace NAFTA should be open and public.
•Canadian Indigenous people should have a seat at the negotiating table.
•NAFTA Chapter 11 should be eliminated. Corporations should use the respective national court systems to settle complaints.
•Nothing in a new agreement should prohibit governments from taking measures necessary to protect the environment and energy sovereignty.
•A new agreement should return to governments the right to use procurement policies to promote national development and job creation. The current weak and unenforceable NAFTA "side agreement" to protect labour must be replaced by enforceable provisions that fully safeguard decent work and labour rights in all three countries.
•Remove all references to water as a tradable good, service or investment.
•Any new deal to replace NAFTA should ensure the protection of Canadian Medicare and Canada’s Orderly Marketing System.
•Restore local and national sovereignty over farm and food policy.
•End the energy chapter’s proportional sharing provision - it stands as a major obstacle for Canada in addressing climate change.
•A global agreement on migration should not be limited to business people or certain professionals but include the International Bill of Human Rights and labour rights for all migrant workers.

It is imperative to replace or scrap NAFTA, beginning with those aspects that have proven most damaging for human and Indigenous rights, labour and environmental rights. Negotiations must conform to fundamental principles of international law, including transparency and accountability.

Raul Burbano, Common Frontiers, burbano@rogers.com, +1-416-522-8615
http://www.commonfrontiers.ca

Common Frontiers is a multi-sectoral working group that organizes research, educational campaigns and political action on issues related to hemispheric economic social and climate justice.

Last Updated on: January 19, 2017

[Oscar]

Groups from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. Demand NAFTA Replacement

[ http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2017/01/18/5442/ ]

By CTC – January 18, 2017 Posted in: Breaking Issues

Anticipating an announcement from the President-elect of the United States Donald Trump to either renegotiate or withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — as well as reactions from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto — broad civil society networks from Mexico, the United States, Canada and Quebec are making clear to their governments that any renegotiation process must be transparent and participatory, and that the resulting NAFTA replacement must improve peoples’ lives and livelihoods and protect the environment in all three countries.

The networks from the various countries, representing labor unions, farmers, consumers, women, environmentalists, and human rights organizations, have been working together since the inception of the NAFTA negotiations in 1991, and have long criticized NAFTA and called for its replacement. They reject any narratives that pit workers in one country against workers in another. Rather, they view the NAFTA model as an expansion of corporate power at the expense of people and the planet and a failure for working people in Mexico, the United States, and Canada. They are united in their demands for a renegotiation that prioritizes human needs over corporate greed throughout North America, and against any deal that falls short of this essential test.

“We know that the trade debate is not about the U.S. versus the rest of the world, but rather about multinational corporations versus the rest of us. Our opposition to corporate trade deals like NAFTA has always been rooted in respect for workers’ rights across the globe, commitment to climate justice and dedication to a new model of trade that puts human needs ahead of corporate profits,” said Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of the U.S.-based Citizens Trade Campaign.

Victor Suarez from the Mexico Better Off Without TPP Platform explained that, “In Mexico, the government faces an unprecedented crisis of credibility and legitimacy. It is stunned, as it has been upholding the neoliberal dogma for so long that it does not realize that it has failed for some time, and does not know what to do with Trump’s initiative. The way the next president of the United States is confronting this failure of the model represented by NAFTA is not appropriate, and we will fight those proposals that would have negative consequences for sustainable and just development of Mexico. We have been elaborating alternative proposals that we hope to enrich through discussions with U.S. and Canadian organizations. The failure of the NAFTA model now requires us to consider the need for a social, democratic, sustainable and peaceful way out of NAFTA.”

Raul Burbano from the Canadian network Common Frontiers stated that, “Any trade agreement must be compatible with the Human Rights covenants as set out by the United Nations. We need to develop new models of cooperation and trade that have at their core fair trade, and economic relations based on social justice, sovereignty and sustainable development.”

“We said then, and know now, the promises made to sell the agreement were false. Instead, we have seen a proven rise in inequality, impoverishment of the vast majority of the population, loss of employment, job insecurity, environmental degradation, deterioration of social cohesion and increased violence,” said Pierre-Yves Serinet of the Quebec Network on Continental Integration (RQIC). “NAFTA altered the balance of power in favor of transnational corporations against the people in the three countries through rules on intellectual property and investment, among other provisions, and against the public interest, the environment, and governments’ legislative power to protect them”, he added. NAFTA established an Investor-to-state dispute settlement mechanism that gives corporations the ability to challenge democratic laws with multi-million dollar demands before panels of corporate lawyers.

The networks, together with civil society organizations in other countries, defeated the attempt to expand the NAFTA model in the Free Trade Area of the Americas in 2005 and opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) long before the U.S. presidential candidates. They are committed to strengthening the trinational coordination across economic and social sectors and to intensify the fight in North America against this flawed trade model.

The networks have begun to work on the principles and concrete measures to define what a NAFTA replacement must look like to put workers, farmers, consumers and the environment first. They continue to coordinate and strategize across borders actions to promote models of regional integration and to oppose any deal that favors corporations over people and the planet.


For more information:

MEXICO
http://mejorsintpp.mx

UNITED STATES
http://www.citizenstrade.org

CANADA / QUEBEC
http://www.commonfrontiers.ca
http://rqic.alternatives.ca
.
Tags: NAFTA
[ http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/tag/nafta/ ]