A wish list for an environmentally friendly NAFTA

The NAFTA flag. The fate of the three-nation trade agreement is now in the hands of negotiators operating in secret. Photo by Keepscases licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 generic license With the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations (lets call it NAFTA 2.0) still in a state of limbo, experts worry Mexico, Canada and the U.S. may bail out of what President Donald Trump has repeatedly called “the worst deal ever made.” The possibility of a tariff and trade war over steel and aluminum has complicated and delayed the negotiations, while earlier foot dragging has already resulted in Brazil being the recipient of large scale corn and other commodities sales to Mexico that would have otherwise likely have gone to U.S. farmers. If NAFTA negotiations fail, U.S. agriculture could take a further blow, along with American automotive and electronics industries; even potentially upsetting global economic stability. But the unlikely winner in this newest rendition of the Art of the Deal could be North America’s, and by extension the world’s, environment. Though the original NAFTA agreement included environmental add-ons that appeared progressive, those provisions mostly existed on paper. And the three-country agreement has done little environmental good, and a whole lot of bad. The secret NAFTA 2.0 negotiations now underway – which include input from government and transnational corporations but not environmental NGOs – seem unlikely to enforce those add-ons. So once again, it seems whatever negotiators agree to, there’s little hope tough environmental standards will be included…

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