« The Middle East Pivot: Erdoğan’s Turkey Seven Deadly SinsFascist Madrid’s Ultimatum to Catalonia »

Renegotiating NAFTA

October 14th, 2017

Stephen Lendman

Many NAFTA terms are non-negotiable. Chapter 11 promotes offshoring, companies building plants abroad getting special protections - including private enforcement through the so-called Investor State Dispute Settlement.

US, Canadian and Mexican companies can sue governments before a tribunal of three corporate lawyers.

They can get unlimited monetary awards from taxpayers - compensation for loss of future profits by claiming the nation they relocated to violated NAFTA provisions.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been paid these predatory firms under what Global Trade Watch director Lori Wallach calls “extrajudicial NAFTA” provisions - available only to relocated firms, a huge incentive to offshore, besides gaining access to low-wage labor. Companies only need to convince the corporate lawyer tribunal that laws protecting public health, digital rights or ecosanity violate NAFTA provisions.

Tribunal lawyer rulings are final, not subject to appeal. Chapter 11 is a corporate giveaway, a grand theft scheme, sure to remain part of any NAFTA renegotiated changes to the January 1, 1994 agreement.

Trade representative Robert Lighthizer is in charge of Trump administration renegotiations. On Wednesday, a fourth round begins. According to an unnamed senior congressional aide, he’s arguing for:

a high percentage of car parts and materials to be manufactured by NAFTA countries, a large portion in America;

renegotiating NAFTA every five years;

modifying, not ending, Chapter 11, the Investor State Dispute Settlement provision; the business community strongly opposes changes, Trump likely at least largely to go along.

He’s facing enormous pressure to leave NAFTA intact, the way things will likely turn out, changes made, if any, to be agreed on by corporate interests so benefits they consider most important aren’t lost.

NAFTA is anti-labor, anti-environment, anti-consumer and anti-democratic.

Corporate lawyers and lobbyists representing them wrote it, the worst trade deal ever agreed on, a monumental jobs-killer, a playing field tilted one way, favoring investors, ignoring public rights and welfare.

It’s unclear if talks will produce anything acceptable to Congress. It has final say on a renegotiated deal if there is one.

Trump has one unilateral option - withdrawing from NAFTA, ending America’s worst ever agreed on deal - a step he’s highly unlikely to take.

-###-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

Virus-free. www.avg.com

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • Robert David A global exposé of how corporations distort science, erase truth, and turn human death into quarterly growth. I. Introduction: When Truth Becomes a Liability In an age when algorithms dictate belief and lobbyists author legislation, truth…
  • Robert David Polluters don’t just dump toxins. They dump stories—engineered by billion-dollar PR firms. They Poisoned the Planet—Then Hired Spin Doctors to Make You Forget When a chemical spill poisons a town, when a pipeline ruptures in a fireball,…
  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War Switzerland got that way through NEUTRALITY Remarks at Neutrality Colloquium: A Call to Action for Active Neutrality & World Peace, June 26-27, 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. I grew up in a town in the United States that…
  • Fred Gransville I. The Fluoride Question For decades, fluoride has had an uncontested official story: it is a beneficial, even benevolent substance—vital to healthy teeth. In toothpaste tubes to water supplies, fluoride has been presented as a dental…
  • Tracy Turner #SCOTUScorruption #FascistAmerica #EndCitizensUnited Bush started it. Obama enabled it. Trump perfected it. And the Court? It never checked power—it built it. I. Opening Jab: The Judicial Illusion "They wear robes to appear impartial. But…
  • Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic Carl von Clausewitz The focal questions about war In dealing with both theoretical and practical points of view about war, at least six fundamental questions arise: 1) What is war?; 2) What types of war exist?; 3) Why do wars…
  • By Tracy Turner What begins as an assault on immigrants ends as an assault on the Constitution itself. The Constitution Is Not a Loophole Come the summer of 2025, the sitting president of America is pushing the limits of constitutional tolerance yet…
  • By Tracy Turner I. The Faustian Bargain “Kids can’t eat pronouns. Families can’t pay bills with gender-neutral bathrooms.” Somewhere between Occupy Wall Street and “Latinx Heritage Month,” the Democratic Party lost the plot—and with it, the nation. In…
  • Fred Gransville 1. Russian Summer Offensive Advances on Multiple Axes Cutting-edge drone warfare Russia is deploying "unjammable" fiber-optic–linked drones across Donbas, Sumy, and Kharkiv, allowing coordinated tactical advances. These UAVs have enabled…
  • Fred Gransville I. Introduction The Lungs of the Earth Are Being Stabbed from All Sides In June 2025, the Amazon and Orinoco basins—twin arteries of South America's ecological soul—are hemorrhaging under a coordinated assault. These are not isolated…
July 2025
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    

  XML Feeds

Free CMS
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi