A Mixed, Muddled Bag: Trump’s USMCA Trade Pact May Help Labor, But Will Hurt the Environment
Long after Donald Trump ceases to be President, the newly renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement may be harming the environment. As Ben Beachy of the Sierra Club describes it, the new agreement “will encourage further outsourcing of pollution and jobs, includes special handouts to some of the world’s most notorious polluters, [and] would help lock in fossil fuel dependency.”
Beachy was discussing the United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement, or USMCA, a name that seems designed to be hard to remember or know how to pronounce. The full text of the agreement, designed to replace NAFTA, was released on October 1, but must be verified to come into effect.
Besides continuing NAFTA’s quarter century legacy of environmental degradation, the USMCA has new wrinkles likely to worsen pollution. It moves backwards from current language included in the most recent free trade agreements signed by the U.S., to protect endangered species, ocean health, and wetlands, among other issues.
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