Labor provisions are an increasingly important feature in trade agreements. But do they work? Despite the attention paid to labor provisions in trade deals like USMCA, domestic policy, not trade agreements, might be the most direct – and most effective – way to improve workers’ lot, especially in advanced countries like the United States.
The political winds seem to be blowing in favor of a Congressional vote on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement (USMCA) yet this fall. But before they vote, some Members of Congress want to talk over a few issues with the Trump administration’s negotiators. One is intellectual property protections for the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry. As important as it is, the issue of data protection for biologic drugs is not well understood.
Just hours after signing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in December last year, President Trump said, “Congress will have a choice of the USMCA or pre-NAFTA, which worked very well.” On the tariff side at least, while a no-USMCA scenario is bad, no NAFTA is most definitely worse.
The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement contains provisions on macroeconomic and exchange rate policies for the first time in a trade agreement. By setting a precedent, the Trump administration is likely to insist on similar commitments in future trade negotiations.
Production limits and price-setting means Canadian milk drinkers pay significantly more than they would in a free market. Conversely, for certain lucrative and in-demand dairy product ingredients, Canadian dairy boards have set prices at or below international market prices. U.S. and other global dairy farmers have argued this offers Canadian exports an advantage in third markets, while driving global prices and farm receipts down. Will NAFTA 2.0 change any of this?
The implementation of NAFTA has allowed U.S. beef trade to flourish, and the efficient supply chains developed under NAFTA have also helped the U.S. beef industry become more competitive in Asia.
A May 17 NAFTA deadline has been in the news. That’s because Congressional leaders have advised the Trump administration that the deal needs to get done soon in order to have a vote on NAFTA 2.0 in this Congress under so-called “fast track” voting procedures. There are all sorts of steps on the timeline built into the Trade Promotion Authority legislation (TPA) for expedited approval of trade agreements. Here’s a short version of the history, context, and essentials of how it all works.
Farmers markets are a great way to shop fresh and seasonal, but if you can’t get there, you can still find an increasingly impressive selection of tomatoes at your local grocery store. To meet year-round demand, the business of the heirloom tomato has grown global.
North America has a sweet relationship — we are each other’s largest trading partners in chocolate.
Before NAFTA went into effect, Americans ate around one pound of avocados per person each year. Today, 82 percent of the avocados we consume in the United States arrive here from Mexico.