Business, labor groups react to USTR's NAFTA priorities

WASHINGTON—A modernized North American Free Trade Agreement, ensuring the highest fair trade standards covering the broadest possible range of goods and services, is the Trump administration's goal for NAFTA reauthorization.

This was the gist of the "Summary of Objectives for the NAFTA Renegotiation," issued by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on July 17.

The USTR document was greeted by a wide range of comments. The United Steelworkers union, which has recently opposed international trade agreements, said NAFTA renegotiation must concentrate on protecting the livelihoods and rights of workers.

Meanwhile, the North American Strategy for Competitiveness (NASCO), a Dallas-based coalition whose hundreds of members include Bridgestone Americas and the Michigan Department of Transportation, said the renegotiation is an opportunity to optimize North America's competitiveness worldwide.

"The America that existed when NAFTA was signed (in 1994) is not the America that we see today," said the introduction to the USTR summary.

NAFTA linked the continent through trade, and also provided much-needed market access for American farmers and ranchers, the summary said. But it also caused trade deficits to skyrocket and thousands of factories to close, it said.

"The new NAFTA must continue to break down barriers to American exports," the summary said. "This includes the elimination of unfair subsidies, market-distorting practices by state-owned enterprises and burdensome restrictions of intellectual property.

"The new NAFTA will be modernized to reflect 21st-century standards and will reflect a fairer deal, addressing America's persistent trade imbalances in North America," it said.

The 18-page document included detailed recommendations in a number of areas, including:

• Building on and setting high standards for implementation of World Trade Organization agreements involving trade facilitation and customs valuation.
• Updating and strengthening the rules of origin to ensure that the benefits of NAFTA go to products genuinely made in the U.S. and North America.
• Ensuring transparency and accountability in the development, implementation and review of regulations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
• Establishing rules that reduce or eliminate barriers to U.S. investment in all sectors in the NAFTA countries.
• Promoting adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights.
• Requiring NAFTA countries to adopt and maintain internationally recognized core labor standards, including freedom of association, the recognition of the right to collective bargaining, elimination of forced labor and abolition of child labor.

In his July 18 comments on the USTR summary, USW International President Leo W. Gerard said NAFTA has failed the workers of America through the loss of tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities and millions of manufacturing jobs.

"More than twenty years of NAFTA has failed to bring the promised prosperity for working people, no matter their country," Gerard said.

"Inadequate programs to address job displacement and a tacit acceptance that some jobs will just go away are not acceptable," Gerard said.

An adequate renegotiated NAFTA must include strong rule of origin policies and strong, enforceable labor rights, according to Gerard.

"In the automobile industry, where the USW has more than 300,000 members who manufacture materials which can go into vehicles, we urge our leaders to increase the duty-free qualifying threshold to 90-percent domestic content," he said.

Asked about the USTR summary, NASCO referred to the June 2 letter it sent to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

"While the supply chain, labor and energy markets have evolved tremendously, the language of NAFTA has not been updated or modernized to keep pace," NASCO said.

"It is in this spirit that NASCO supports an update to NAFTA, and encourages the administration to be thorough, swift and specific, as the 'unknown' is not inconsequential to business," the coalition said.