Emily Wurth
Managing Director of Organizing
Food & Water Action and Food & Water Watch
John,
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was always a bad deal — especially for family farmers, workers and the environment.¹
Trump's new, renegotiated version of NAFTA, called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), doesn’t fix what is wrong with the original NAFTA — it would actually make some problems even worse.²
We need to let Congress know that the new NAFTA is no better than the old one, and they should oppose it.
Many industries are putting tremendous pressure on Congress to approve this deal soon. But, if this deal moves forward, it would be detrimental because it:
Undermines U.S. food safety protections, including language designed to make it harder to defend or implement food safety safeguards.
Rolls back Mexico’s regulation of GMOs and lets chemical giants like Monsanto and Dow keep the data on the safety of their pesticides secret for 10 years.
Fails to mention climate change.
Encourages more pipelines and exports of natural gas and oil that would further expand fracking in the United States and Mexico.
NAFTA was the beginning of an era of trade deals written by and for corporate interests. The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is continuing this trend. It’s full of giveaways to the pharmaceutical, oil and gas, and big ag industries, and contains virtually nothing for U.S. workers, farmers and the environment.
So far, NAFTA has put corporations ahead of the public, creating a global race to the bottom for labor, public health, and environmental standards, and sending jobs to where work can be done cheaply and under weaker regulatory oversight.
From food safety to clean air and water, every one of us will be impacted by the terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. It would cause an array of new problems by outsourcing pollution and jobs, undermining U.S. consumer protections and locking in our dependency on fossil fuels.
Food & Water Action and its affiliated organization, Food & Water Watch, are advocacy groups with a common mission to protect our food, water and climate. This email was sent to [email protected] - and we're glad you got it, because it's one of the most important ways you can reclaim political power, hold elected officials accountable and resist corporate control.
