WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Trump administration negotiators met behind closed doors with representatives from the Mexico and Canada to begin the first round of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The U.S. public has not been allowed to see or comment on any U.S. textual proposals that may be tabled this week, despite NAFTA’s impacts’ on jobs and wages, air and water, and health. The Trump administration decided to eliminate standard opportunities for stakeholder engagement during this week’s closed-door talks. Throughout his candidacy, Trump proclaimed he would “announce” plans to “totally renegotiate” NAFTA on “day one” of his presidency. Today is the 207th day of his presidency
While the Trump administration negotiates in secret in Washington, labor, environmental, and government leaders -- including Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) -- held a public forum today in Pittsburgh to make clear that NAFTA must be renegotiated openly, by and for the American people.
Prior to today, Trump and his administration have failed to provide concrete details on their plans for renegotiation, instead, offering a series of conflicting vague remarks. In May, the administration sent a roughly one-page formal notification to Congress which offered no specifics. This was preceded by a longer proposal in March that revealed plans to keep many of NAFTA’s most damaging elements intact. In July, the administration released vague negotiating objectives that suggested a copy and paste of provisions from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal that Trump claimed to hate.
Earlier this week, the American Petroleum Institute issued a one-pager urging the Trump administration to keep perhaps the most controversial part of NAFTA, the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system in NAFTA 2.0. This provision allows multinational corporations like ExxonMobil to bypass our courts, go to private tribunals, and demand money from taxpayers for policies that affect corporate bottom lines. The oil and gas lobby has also called for new NAFTA provisions that could spur increased build-out of oil and gas pipelines, fracking, and offshore drilling.
In contrast, the Sierra Club and other leading environmental groups have released eight specific and fundamental changes to NAFTA that must be included in any replacement deal.
Leading the talks on behalf of the administration today is John Melle, a nearly 30-year employee at the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and currently the assistant U.S. trade representative for the Western Hemisphere. Melle joined the USTR in 1988 -- three years before NAFTA negotiations began -- and has held various positions, including overseeing NAFTA’s implementation. In a 2006 congressional testimony, Melle declared NAFTA a “tremendous success.”
In response, Sierra Club Responsible Trade Program Director Ben Beachy released the following statement:
"For all his talk of doing trade differently, Donald Trump seems intent on repeating the closed-door negotiating process that produced NAFTA in the first place. We’ve seen how corporations hijack secret trade negotiations to pad their profits at the expense of good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities. If Trump’s NAFTA 2.0 becomes another backroom deal by and for corporations, vigorous opposition will be predictable and merited.
“So far Trump’s plan for NAFTA is a bunch of vague tweaks that actually look like a copy and paste of the TPP, a deal that Trump claimed to hate. If Trump intends to use NAFTA 2.0 to revive the TPP, he should expect to revive the same movement of millions that defeated the deal in the first place.
“The Sierra Club calls on Donald Trump to prove to the American people who he’s working for: them or corporate polluters. With today’s NAFTA talks shrouded in secrecy and an administration stocked with corporate polluters, we have a good idea of the answer. ”
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