ISDS Case Map
NAFTA | USMCA
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
