[CTC] NAFTA statements (round 2)

Tue Dec 10 13:03:24 PST 2019

Statements from Public Citizen, R-CALF, Council of Canadians are below. CTC still needs to review as a coalition before taking a position.

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

PUBLIC CITIZEN

Redo of USMCA Better Than Original NAFTA After Yearlong Effort to Improve Trump’s 2018 Deal

Unions, Consumer Groups and Congressional Democrats Achieve Removal of Big Pharma Giveaways and Strengthening of Labor, Environmental Standards and Enforcement

For Immediate Release:                 Contact: Matthew Groch (202) 454-5111, mgroch at citizen.org <mailto:mgroch at citizen.org><mailto:mgroch at citizen.org <mailto:mgroch at citizen.org>>
Dec. 10, 2019

Note: Today, the administration and U.S. House Democrats announced they had reached an agreement on a redo of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that Donald Trump signed last year. Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, issued the following preliminary statement about the revised revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA):

Thanks to congressional Democrats, unions and consumer groups fighting to remove Big Pharma giveaways and improve labor and environmental terms, the redo of Trump's 2018 NAFTA 2.0 is better than the original NAFTA and could improve peoples’ lives, although it still includes problematic terms.

Trump failed to fix NAFTA with the deal he signed last year, betraying his promise to working people. It included new Big Pharma giveaways that lock in high drug prices and labor and environmental terms that were too weak to stop NAFTA's original sin of job outsourcing.

Working people are the winners in the yearlong battle to force Trump to fix his NAFTA 2.0: The changes Trump was forced to make mean the final deal could counter some of NAFTA’s ongoing damage to working people and the environment. Although many NAFTA flaws were not fixed, the alternative is status quo NAFTA, not a more improved deal.

The best feature of the new NAFTA is the gutting of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). Using this regime, corporations have extracted almost $400 million from North American taxpayers after attacks on environmental and health policies before tribunals of three corporate lawyers. That a U.S. pact largely eliminates extreme ISDS protections for foreign investors and anti-democratic tribunals sends a signal worldwide about the illegitimacy of the ISDS regime.

Trump's claim that this new NAFTA will bring back hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs is absurd. However, over time, the labor and environmental standards and enhanced enforcement terms may help raise wages in Mexico, and this may also reduce U.S. corporations’ incentives to outsource U.S. jobs to Mexico to pay workers less.

Today’s deal shows that to be politically viable, trade pacts can no longer include extreme corporate rights like ISDS or new monopoly protections for Big Pharma that have been featured in past U.S. trade deals and that they must have enforceable labor and environmental standards. This is a significant shift after decades of U.S. trade pacts expanding corporate rights and Big Pharma monopoly protections.

Fixing the existing, damaging NAFTA is not the same as negotiating a truly progressive trade agreement from scratch, which would additionally require climate provisions, truly enforceable currency disciplines, and the elimination of limits on consumer protections for food, product safety, the service sector and online platforms. The new NAFTA is not the template for future agreements, but establishes the floor from which we will continue to advocate for a new model of trade and globalization that puts people and the planet first.

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R-CALF USA Statements on USMCA

Billings, Mont. - R-CALF USA, the nation's largest producer-only cattle trade association that lobbies on behalf of America's cattle farmers and ranchers released the following statements today following announcement of an agreement between House Democrats and the White House on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

"Once again the House of Representatives and the White House have reached an agreement on a measure that will provide windfall profits for Agribusiness giants at the expense of America's hard-working cattle farmers and ranchers.

"Although the U.S. cattle industry is the largest segment of American agriculture, making it an unsurpassed economic cornerstone for Rural America, the proposed USMCA does absolutely nothing to change provisions impacting cattle and beef trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

"In fact, the new USMCA is worse than the old NAFTA because at least for several years during the old NAFTA American cattle farmers and ranchers received the tool they needed to finally compete against the growing volume of cheaper imported beef and cattle from Canada and Mexico. From 2013 through 2015, mandatory country-of-origin labels for beef empowered America's cattle producers to finally begin competing against this growing tide of cheaper, undifferentiated foreign beef.

"We've asked Congress and the President to, at the very least, restore mandatory country-of-origin labels (COOL) so American cattle farmers and ranchers could compete against the duty-free, cheaper and undifferentiated cattle and beef flowing into our country and depressing our markets.

"We've been ignored. 

"We should now expect the downward trends caused by NAFTA to continue, if not accelerate, under the USMCA. Under NAFTA, we lost 20 percent of our cattle operations, wiped out 75 percent of our farmer-feeder-type feedlots, reduced our herd size by millions of head of cattle, and we've eliminated opportunities for current and aspiring cattle producers alike with the burden of a horrendous trade deficit in the trade of cattle and beef with Canada and Mexico.

"We urge Congress to vote the USMCA down in its present form."
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R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America) is the largest producer-only cattle trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001kmByKwOL-FOYKANTAV9MIxryff5wBdinb0YM2hndvy8-tF3iiL3rR9XkDwmJL-iKgtgEyzBIdRg48DtRI2OTy3RWX9RSUUjbUd3HzCkv1pTqLAx3XIfNfJ7XoSwGWSieCPJd6faZi4supkg-kzjQucPmNxns9KWt_FugRV9jB-E=&c=hulNtMRnhaK_s3juPzRrc5a9AWcYqZYCroGeQpVsqkzi3FLIXh6hBA==&ch=NHinOu3lkeAnJEWHjX6PgVTPdFhBHxJIsj9BBpw6PB09X3uwSBCIWg==> or, call 406-252-2516.

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https://canadians.org/media/new-nafta-deal-improved-still-fundamentally-flawed <https://canadians.org/media/new-nafta-deal-improved-still-fundamentally-flawed>
New NAFTA deal improved, but still fundamentally flawed
December 10, 2019
Media Release
OTTAWA — After months of negotiations, a new NAFTA deal was reached between the U.S. Congress, Mexico and Canada. While the deal is still under wraps, it appears that some key positive changes have been made. However, the deal is more of the same, says the Council of Canadians.

“We have a long way to go before we get a deal that is ambitious enough to serve the needs of the planet and the rest of us. And with the climate crisis, we have so little time,” said Sujata Dey, Trade Campaigner for the Council of Canadians. “The changes to this deal show that while we are up against unprecedented corporate power, we are able to make a difference when we work together.”

Major changes to the deal include:

the removal of biologic drug provisions which lock-in profits for Big Pharma. (The Council of Canadians opposed <https://canadians.org/nafta-pharmacare> this provision which could jeopardize a future Pharmacare program.)
more enforceable labour standards
the inclusion of more multilateral environmental agreements in the agreement.
The Council of Canadians welcomes these changes to the deal.

In addition, the Council advocated for removing the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions <https://canadians.org/factsheet-nafta-isds> which allow corporations to sue governments over public policy changes when they affect profit. The Council of Canadians also challenged the energy proportionality <https://canadians.org/factsheet-nafta-energy> provisions which mandate Canada to export energy to the U.S. Both of those provisions have been removed for Canada in the deal.

“Thanks to people power, we have pushed for a better deal. However, it is still a deal based on a flawed pro-multinational blueprint. The deal empowers corporations and is ineffective at challenging the essential issues of our time—climate change and rampant inequality—which are amplified by unregulated globalization,” said Maude Barlow, Honorary Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “What we can rejoice in is this: ISDS, the corporate courts are on the run. Chapter 11 will not apply to Canada in the new deal. Finally, all over the world, these provisions are being seen for what they are, an attack on the commons, and a grab bag for rich multinationals.”

At the same time, new toxic provisions were introduced into the new deal; a binding regulatory cooperation <https://canadians.org/nafta-regulatory-cooperation> chapter which seats corporations at the table where regulations are made, giving them the power to modify and challenge them; the erosion of the supply managed markets <https://canadians.org/nafta-canadian-dairy> and sovereignty for Canadian farmers; and ineffective protections for water. The agreement does not mention the Paris climate agreement and still has provisions which encourage the further privatization and deregulation of the economy.

The Council of Canadians is available to comment on the new NAFTA.

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About the Council of Canadians:

Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is a grassroots-based social action organization, mobilizing a network of 60 chapters across the country and over 150,000 supporters from coast-to-coast-to-coast.

Through our campaigns we advocate for clean water, fair trade, green energy, public health care and a vibrant democracy. We educate and empower people to hold our governments and corporations accountable.

The Council of Canadians is a registered non-profit organization and does not accept money from corporations or governments.

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