Demand a Comprehensive NAFTA Replacement

More-and-more people are demanding that trade agreements that promote a global race to the bottom in wages, working conditions and environmental standards be replaced with new policies that finally put the needs of people and the planet ahead of corporate greed.

Not surprisingly, corporate elites that profit from policies like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are fighting tooth-and-nail maintain the privileges that status quo trade policy provides them.

TAKE ACTION:  With NAFTA continuing to outsource more jobs every week, drive down wages in the jobs that are left and drive up pollution, please demand that trade negotiators stay at the table to deliver a comprehensive NAFTA replacement that prioritizes good-paying jobs, increased wages and a healthy environment. 

Corporations that benefit from NAFTA have been calling for a superficial “modernization” of the pact that further entrenches their power, rather than delivering the top-to-bottom rewrite needed to protect jobs at home, protect human rights abroad and improve wages and environmental conditions continent wide.  Unfortunately, these corporate interest groups have also enlisted some elected officials to help them.

The outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan imposed an arbitrary and unreasonable deadline of completing the NAFTA talks by May 17th if negotiators wanted a new deal to receive a vote in the current Congress.  Many read the new deadline as his way of saying, “Quit pushing for all these labor and environmental improvements that corporations oppose, and deliver a quick-and-dirty deal that expands a business-as-usual trade model.”

Given that trade negotiators from Canada and Mexico just approved the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), that was clearly the model corporations had in mind.

Fortunately, it doesn’t look like Speaker Ryan and the corporate lobbyists will get their way — at least in the short term.  But Republican Congressional Leadership continues pushing for a NAFTA renegotiation that puts corporate profits ahead of all else, and we need to push back even stronger.

TAKE ACTION: Urge your elected officials to demand that NAFTA’s renegotiation add strong labor and environmental provisions with swift and certain enforcement, and that it eliminate the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system that threatens jobs, the climate and public health.

Together, we can end the NAFTA-driven race to the bottom — but it’s going to take continued vigilance and effort.  Please take action now.