Response to the United States Trade Representative’s Stated Objectives on NAFTA Negotiations: An environmental perspective
On July 17, 2017, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published its Summary of Objectives for the NAFTA renegotiation. Taking a sustainable development perspective, this response examines the USTR objectives and how they directly or indirectly relate to sustainable growth through international trade and investment.
After over two decades in force, the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) offers a key opportunity to revamp trade provisions between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
On July 17, 2017, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published its Summary of Objectives for the NAFTA renegotiation. With the renegotiation process scheduled to continue this week, these objectives set the United States’ position regarding the future of NAFTA and how it relates to key issues, including public procurement, investment provisions and market access, enforcement mechanisms and environmental protection.
Taking a sustainable development perspective, this response examines the USTR objectives and how they directly or indirectly relate to sustainable growth through international trade and investment. In doing so, it identifies opportunities for negotiators to enhance institutional governance structures, standards and international trade provisions towards a sustainable development agenda.
You might also be interested in
Trade Can be a Driver of Climate Action
CETA, the landmark trade agreement between the EU and Canada, holds established best practices for trade-accelerated climate action, Bernice Lee and Scott Vaughan argue as the business, civil society and policy communities gather in Brussels to consider how to merge trade and climate action.
WTO Survival Uncertain as Ministers Meet in Canada
The WTO faces its most critical test—a reaction to the October 2018 Joint Communiqué as international trade evolves faster than the WTO can move.
USMCA Versus NAFTA on the Environment
The old NAFTA set the bar in linking trade and environment. How does its successor compare?
USMCA Curbs How Much Investors Can Sue Countries—Sort of
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) put the famous investor–state dispute settlement mechanism on the map. Now its rebirth as the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) is taking it off again—at least between the United States and Canada.