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NAFTA

Setting The Pace In Auto: Thinking Bigger Than Tariffs

March 31, 2025 Andrew Elrod, Labor Notes. , , , , , ,
President Donald Trump’s infatuation with tariffs dates back to the 1980s, when he first said tariff was “the most beautiful word in the dictionary.” On March 26 he announced “a 25 percent tariff on all cars not made in the U.S.,” but exempted auto parts that comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the successor to NAFTA. For those parts, and for the 25 percent of U.S.-sold vehicles that are assembled in Mexico and Canada, the tariffs will be applied partially at an undisclosed date to only the non-U.S. part of the vehicle’s value. Essentially, auto manufacturing is already so integrated across North America that the administration has left carve-outs for Mexico and Canada.

Canada’s Sovereignty Was Under Threat Long Before Trump

March 30, 2025 Ekaterina Cabylis, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , ,
While the exploitation of Canada’s natural resources and economic control exerted by the U.S. are well known, the subtler ways America maintains its grip, through cultural influence, economic pressure, and the poaching of talent, reveal a deeper, systemic colonization. The United States has systematically prevented Canada from developing industrial independence, ensuring it remains a supplier of raw materials rather than a competitor on the global stage. The economic imbalance has been in place for decades, yet many Canadians falsely believe that Donald Trump was the catalyst for U.S. exploitation.

What Could Workers Win In A New NAFTA?

January 25, 2025 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Labor Notes. , , , , , ,
In his nine years in the auto industry, Ben Hinsey has seen a lot of misplaced blame. The threat of job cuts is always looming. In fact, Hinsey transferred into his current job at the Stellantis Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, when his previous one at the Chrysler Toledo Machining Plant evaporated in a 2017 wave of layoffs. He now installs instrument panels and serves as a float, moving from job to job to cover absences. Hundreds of thousands of auto jobs have disappeared from the U.S. since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 and its successor, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), often known as NAFTA 2.0.

The Zapatista Uprising, 30 Years On

January 29, 2024 Bernard Duterme, Equal Times. , , , ,
January 10, 2024 - It’s been exactly thirty years today. Three decades now separate us from an event that marked the end of the previous century. On 1 January 1994, the very day that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico and Canada came into force, a few thousand Indigenous Mayans from the state of Chiapas in south-east Mexico, armed with old rifles, “declared war” on the federal army and “dictator” Carlos Salinas. Their spokesperson, Subcomandante Marcos, one of the survivors of the core group of Guévarist academic revolutionaries, had entered the region clandestinely ten years earlier to create the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) and “ignite the revolution”.

Congress Must Vote ‘NO’ On NAFTA 2.0!

December 16, 2019 Staff, Socialistorganizer.org ,
It’s been called a “historic bipartisan trade pact.” Donald Trump hailed it as a “victory” for his administration and for the American people. Nancy Pelosi called it a trade agreement that is “infinitely better” than both NAFTA and Trump’s initial proposal. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka insisted that the USMCA has been “fixed” — that “swift and certain labor enforcement mechanisms” are now in place. But is this really a victory for working people? Is the USMCA fundamentally different from NAFTA? To answer these questions, it is worth looking at how the financial press has covered the story.

USMCA: Bandaids On A Flawed Corporate Trade System

December 15, 2019 By Michael Arria, Working In These Times , ,
A report by economists Thea M. Lee and Robert E. Scott at the Economic Policy Institute concedes that USMCA is a big improvement from the 2017 version, but concludes that it ultimately adds up to “Band-Aids on a fundamentally flawed agreement and process.” Using statistics from the U.S. International Trade Commission, Lee and Scott point out that, at best, the deal will only create about 51,000 jobs over the next six years and could raise the GDP by a few tenths of a percentage point. These potential jobs would come in farming, manufacturing and mining. The report cites an International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper which predicts nothing but bad news for the (already beleaguered) auto-industry. That same paper concludes that, “At the aggregate level, effects of the USMCA are relatively small...effects of the USMCA on real GDP are negligible.”

It’s Time To Stop NAFTA 2.0 And Get Trade For People And Planet!

June 21, 2019 Mackenzie McDonald Wilkins, Tradeforpeopleandplanet.org , ,
The debate around Trump’s NAFTA 2.0 is heating up. Mexico just ratified the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), leaving both Canada and the United States to follow suit. But, there are some major road-blocks in both countries that could delay or even derail the “trade” deal completely. In the US, we have to keep the pressure on House Democrats so they don’t succumb to the interests of Big Pharma, Big Ag, and the Fossil Fuel industry that are fighting hard for further deregulation under NAFTA 2.0.

Making Sense Of NAFTA And Its Replacement

June 12, 2019 Stan Sorscher, Thestand.org , ,
(June 10, 2019) — In 2016, Donald Trump’s trade message was very simple: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was the worst trade deal ever negotiated. He has renegotiated NAFTA, rebranding the deal as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). We never quite understood his objection to the original NAFTA, and we don’t understand how USMCA fixes it. You need to squint to see the difference between NAFTA and its replacement.

Report: Trump NAFTA 2.0 Fails Economic Analysis

April 21, 2019 Eyes On Trade , ,
The April 18, 2019 release of the International Trade Commission (ITC) report on the revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) does nothing to alter the reality that the fate of NAFTA 2.0 relies largely on whether the administration engages with congressional Democrats and then with Canada and Mexico to improve the text signed last year. That Democrats, unions and others who have opposed past pacts seek improvements – rather than the deal’s demise – reveals that a path exists to build broad support. But absent removal of new monopoly protections for pharmaceutical firms that lock in high drug prices and strengthened labor and environmental standards and enforcement, the deal is not likely to garner a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Time Is Running Out For Old And New NAFTA Deal

April 8, 2019 Staff, Telesurenglish.net , , , ,
Back in December 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump gave Congress a six-month ultimatum to approve the newly signed “United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement” (USMCA), yet as elections loom closer and tariffs disputes continue the chance of the countries ratifying the pact this year are receding. Even though a deal was reached in 2018, the USMCA has not been ratified by any of the three countries, which means the trade framework is still at risk. “The USMCA is in trouble,” assured former Mexican deputy foreign minister for North America, Andres Rozental.

USMCA is Another Corporate Power Grab

March 1, 2019 By Mackenzie McDonald Wilkins, Popular Resistance , , ,
The path to creating a trade system that puts the necessities of the people and the protection of the planet before trade designed for transnational corporations begins with stopping Trump Trade, the NAFTA 2.0 referred to as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreements (USMCA). Many of the shortcomings of the original NAFTA remain and the reforms made are inadequate to warrant support for those who believe in fair trade that puts people and planet before corporate trade. The path to a trade regimen that we need begins by stopping Trump Trade.

AMLO Goes Full Throttle Against Neoliberalism — But What About NAFTA?

December 19, 2018 By Manuel Perez-Rocha, Fpif.org , , , ,
I had the great fortune to attend the inauguration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (or AMLO, as he is known) as the 58th Mexican president on December 1. The atmosphere at the Legislative Palace was electric with the knowledge that Mexico would be beginning its “Fourth Transformation” — following its 1810 independence, the 1855 reformation, and the 1910 revolution — with the first left-wing presidency in its history. It was AMLO’s third attempt at the office. In 2006 Felipe Calderón orchestrated a cyber fraud that gave him a slim advantage over AMLO. And in order to win in 2012, outgoing president Enrique Peña Nieto engaged in tricks like giving away cash-loaded bank cards.

An Historic Opportunity To Transform Trade When We Stop NAFTA II

December 9, 2018 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance , ,
Donald Trump was right when he said that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been a disaster for the United States and promised to renegotiate it when he became president. However, the renegotiated NAFTA-2 is worse than the original NAFTA and should be rejected. The defeat of NAFTA-2 will send a message that corporate trade will never be approved by Congress and transformation of trade is needed. Trade needs to be designed to uplift workers, reduce inequality, confront climate change, improve the quality of our food and our healthcare. The defeat NAFTA II can make transforming trade a major issue in the 2020 campaign.

Stop NAFTA 2 – No More Rigged Corporate Trade

December 7, 2018 Trade for People and Planet. , , ,
Trump’s renegotiated NAFTA, the USMCA, maintains the same failed model as NAFTA and the TPP that favors big corporations at the expense of working people and the environment. This agreement should be rejected and replaced with a new model of trade that protects workers, the environment and democracy. We can stop it from being ratified by Congress. Contact your member of Congress using the simple tool below.

New Report: 25 Years Of NAFTA’s Damage To U.S. Latino And Mexican People

December 5, 2018 Citizens Trade Campaign, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Washington, D.C. – With the signing of the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Nov. 30 as the migrant crisis at the border escalates, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) and Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch released a timely analysis of the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) disproportionate damage to U.S. Latinos and Mexican workers, and whether the NAFTA 2.0 deal would stop it. “While President Trump’s manipulation of grievances over trade and immigration brought him to power, absent from his worldview is the reality that NAFTA was developed by and for multinational corporations seeking to pay workers less and has hurt both U.S. and Mexican workers,”...
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