President Trump Signs USMCA, Ending ‘Nafta Nightmare’

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Stella
This entry was posted in Current Events, Economy, News. Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to President Trump Signs USMCA, Ending ‘Nafta Nightmare’

  1. auscitizenmom's avatar auscitizenmom says:
    January 30, 2020 at 10:39 am

    I am so glad the House finally signed this. I saw where Pelosi and Co. had a news conference saying that they had made significant changes to USMCA before they passed it. Somebody on FOX and FRIENDS said it wasn’t true at all.

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    • Stella's avatar stella says:
      January 30, 2020 at 11:13 am

      I wondered about that, but haven’t looked into it. I have heard Pelosi say that.

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    • Stella's avatar stella says:
      January 30, 2020 at 11:26 am

      I found this article (it’s PBS) that you can read and evaluate yourself, but it includes this:

      A top priority for Democrats was getting labor unions to sign off on the USMCA.

      They gained labor unions’ support by pushing for factories in Mexico to be inspected, as well as supporting labor laws that will allow Mexican workers to form independent unions and give them more control over their contracts. Mexico had previously pledged to pass those laws, but labor unions said the old version of the USMCA did little to hold Mexico to its promise.

      “They tried to build in provisions that would guarantee a greater likelihood that what Mexico has promised to do will be done,” said Bill Reinsch, a trade policy scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

      The revised deal outlines benchmarks that Mexico will have to meet as it reforms its labor laws. If it fails to meet those benchmarks, the U.S. or Canada could argue Mexico is violating the agreement and take a series of enforcement measures.

      Although Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pushed back on factory inspections, the Mexican trade delegation eventually ceded to the demands of the United States.

      ALSO

      The revised deal includes a number of new environmental provisions. One is a clause that presumes “an environmental violation affects trade and investment.” If a government challenges this presumption, they are required to provide proof that this is not the case. Another is the creation of an interagency committee to monitor countries’ commitments to environmental standards.

      Despite the revisions, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement last month that the deal still falls short of “fundamental changes” that environmental groups wanted to see, including binding climate standards and “meaningful limits” on air and water pollution.

      ALSO

      A clause that had promised biologic drug companies 10 years of intellectual property protections was removed from the final USMCA deal. Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee said in a statement that giving pharmaceutical companies this 10-year claim would delay competition and prevent consumers’ access to affordable medicine.

      AND

      Under NAFTA, parties that took issue with the trade agreement could dispute it via an international resolution panel.

      But because countries could block the creation of these panels by refusing to appoint members, it was never particularly effective, said Christopher Wilson, the deputy director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute.

      The new USMCA has strengthened the dispute settlement provisions that force companies to cooperate with the panel process.

      https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/these-4-changes-helped-trump-and-democrats-agree-to-the-usmca-trade-deal

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