"New NAFTA”: New red tape for regulators?

Understanding the regulatory practices and cooperation provisions of New NAFTA and what they could mean for food safety, worker and environmental protections in Canada and the United States.

Several chapters in the USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement), or “New NAFTA,” create new hurdles for governments and regulators trying to protect people, animals and the environment from harmful food products and practices, while creating additional opportunities for lobbyists to shape regulations at the outset. In this IATP webinar, Sharon Treat, Senior Attorney at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and Stuart Trew, Senior Editor of The Monitor at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, pinpoint these provisions of the “New NAFTA”—in the Good Regulatory Practices and Technical Barriers to Trade chapters and their sectoral annexes—and urge food and environmental activists to work together to resist this expansion of the corporate trade agenda.

Federal Registrar Notice (NOTE: The deadline for comments has been extended until Dec. 10, 2018)

View the presentations

• Warning: This agreement contains language hazardous to democracy. by Stuart Trew
• Enhanced Corporate Meddling Opportunities New NAFTA/USMCA: Chapter 28 “Good Regulatory Practices” & Chapter 12 TBT Sectoral Annexes by Sharon Anglin Treat

Other resources

• Will Trump use NAFTA to institutionalize the wholesale delay and repeal of public protections? by Sharon Anglin Treat, IATP
• From NAFTA to CETA: Corporate lobbying through the back door by Stuart Trew, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
• USMCA: Red tape for public safety regulators by Stuart Trew
• 30 years of neglect: a recent history of Canada-U.S. (de)regulatory co-operation by Stuart Trew
• Analysts: USMCA good regulatory practices chapter a baseline for EU deal from Inside U.S. Trade(behind a paywall)

Panelists

Sharon Treat, IATP Senior Attorney
For more than a decade, a major focus of Sharon's policy work has included international trade agreements and their intersection with environmental, food and public health policy. Sharon first got involved in trade policy as a state legislator In Maine, which in 2004 established the Maine Citizen Trade Policy Commission to advise state and federal policymakers and to provide a forum for both educating the public and receiving feedback on the impacts of trade policy. Sharon has served on the Commission for a number of years, including several as co-chair, and represents the Commission on the Intergovernmental Policy Advisory Committee (IGPAC) to the U.S. Trade Representative.

Stuart Trew, Senior Editor of The Monitor at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Stuart Trew is the editor of The Monitor, the CCPA's national magazine, and co-editor on a number of other recent CCPA publications, including The Harper Record: 2009-2015, Making Sense of the CETA, and a series of papers under the title What’s the Big Deal? Understanding the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He from Carleton University in 2000 with a bachelor of journalism and political science. Until 2006, he was the editor and political columnist for a popular news and entertainment weekly in Ottawa. He spent the following eight years at the Council of Canadians as a researcher, organizer and trade campaigner, publishing several reports, book chapters and frequent news commentaries on the connections between the free trade regime, social and economic inequality, and climate change. In 2009, Stuart co-founded the Trade Justice Network, which continues to bring together labor, environmental organizations, students, human rights groups and others to challenge Canada’s “next generation” free trade agreements.

Moderator

Karen Hansen-Kuhn, IATP Director of Trade and Global Governance
Karen has been working on trade and economic justice for more than two decades. She has published articles on U.S. trade and agriculture policies, the impacts of U.S. biofuels policies on food security, and women and food crises. Prior to IATP, Karen was the coordinator of the Alliance for Responsible Trade and policy director at the U.S. office of ActionAid.

Note: This webinar will be recorded and a replay available upon completion. Register to receive an email with the replay.