Deal remains hazardous to our health
Despite a new name, President Donald Trump’s trade accord with Canada and Mexico would perpetuate the damage NAFTA has caused to communities across North America. A pro-polluter trade proposal by another name is still a threat to our health and livelihoods.
This NAFTA 2.0 would encourage further outsourcing of pollution and jobs, give handouts to corporate polluters like Chevron and ExxonMobil, and cement Trump’s polluting legacy for years after he has left office. It fails to mention climate change and would actually prolong NAFTA’s contribution to the climate crisis by promoting fossil fuel development.
The lack of binding environmental standards in the deal would allow more corporations to evade hard-fought U.S. environmental protections by shifting jobs, emissions and toxic pollution to Mexico. For example, the proposal fails to include a single binding standard to stop corporations from exporting lead waste to Mexico — where standards are 10 times weaker — instead of recycling it in the U.S. This pollution-outsourc- ing loophole has cost the U.S. recycling jobs and poisoned the air of border communities. Closing it will require strong environmental and labor standards, not climate denial, weak words and a failed enforcement system.
The proposal falls far short of the minimum changes necessary to curb NAFTA’s threats to wildlife, clean air and water, and the health of our communities. It preserves rules that would lock in gas exports, encourage fracking, and allow corporate polluters to challenge clean energy policies. It even rolls back standards included in past trade pacts to reinforce international agreements protecting everything from wetlands to sea turtles.
Meanwhile, the proposal’s new propolluter rules — not found in NAFTA — could make it more difficult to reverse Trump’s environmental rollbacks.
Our communities will suffer if this proposal, which was hastily finalized to score political points, remains as is. We need a replacement for NAFTA that prioritizes people and the planet.