New NAFTA Looks A Lot like TPP

The Trump Administration has released its objectives for renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The document is full of the same failed policies from decades of bad trade deals that have hurt working families and communities.

The Trump Administration objectives look all too much like the provisions included in the failed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which President Trump criticized throughout the election season. Instead of putting together a new deal that puts workers, consumers, and communities first, these new objectives simply copy failed provisions of other trade deals.

The administration’s objectives don't include eliminating the private justice system for multinational corporations called Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). The Trump plan includes provisions borrowed from the TPP that would hinder our ability to keep call center jobs here in the U.S. and put consumers' privacy and personal information at risk.

CWA President Chris Shelton joined Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, IAM President Bob Martinez, and Sierra Club Board Member Margrete Strand-Rangnes on a call on Monday to talk about how to renegotiate NAFTA in a way that would help working families.

“For millions of U.S. working families, trade deals like NAFTA have been a string of one broken promise after another,” Shelton said. “Members of my union, whether they work in call centers, high tech, or auto part assembly, have been harmed by NAFTA and the bad trade deals our country has negotiated for decades. Working people pay the price for these bad trade deals through lost jobs and lost earnings, devastated communities and a lower standard of living.”

Read Shelton's letter to the USTR on how NAFTA should be renegotiated here.