Cindy Carr, cindy.carr@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) released its analysis on the economic consequences of Donald Trump’s NAFTA 2.0 trade deal. A review of the report found:
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The report essentially ignores the economic, environmental, and health ramifications of NAFTA 2.0's weak environmental terms. The environment chapter only gets roughly 1.5 pages of attention in the 375-page report. In those few paragraphs, the report does not mention NAFTA's well-documented track record of enabling corporations to move production to Mexico to dump their pollution under Mexico’s weaker environmental standards, resulting in U.S. job loss and significant health and environmental costs for border communities.
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That omission may be because the report authors see NAFTA 2.0's terms as too weak to alter NAFTA's economic track record, which they tacitly suggest. The report states that it's particularly difficult to assess the economic impacts of environmental terms that are "nonbinding." Indeed, NAFTA 2.0’s weak environmental terms are not going to slow down NAFTA’s track record of outsourcing.
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The report accurately notes that NAFTA 2.0 ignores the climate crisis, stating that the deal is "minimalistic on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change mitigation." But the report fails to assess the economic, health, or environmental impacts of NAFTA 2.0's climate denialism. The report barely makes mention of the massive economic damage that climate change is projected to cause, and it fails to assess how Trump’s NAFTA 2.0 would contribute to such costly climate change by encouraging fossil fuel trade, facilitating carbon leakage via outsourcing, and empowering oil and gas corporations to challenge climate policies.
In response, Sierra Club Living Economy Director Ben Beachy released the following statement:
"The ITC should have taken a hard look at how Trump’s NAFTA deal would perpetuate NAFTA’s track record of toxic dumping, job outsourcing, and climate pollution, but instead today’s report gives a free pass to the Trump administration’s pro-polluter deal.”
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To read Ben Beachy’s December 2018 testimony to the ITC on NAFTA 2.0, click here.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.