Beyond NAFTA 2.0
Introduction
With ratification of NAFTA 2.0 still up in the air in the U.S. and Canada, a new international report looks beyond that deeply flawed agreement to imagine a more progressive and truly fair trade regime. The report, which includes contributions by trade experts and activists from all three North American countries, critically analyzes the USMCA (known as CUSMA in Canada and T-MEC in Mexico) and sets out alternatives that would give priority to human rights and the rights of nature over corporate rights.
The report challenges both the Trump administration’s trade wars and the broken, neoliberal status quo. It recommends many practical changes to current trade rules, including safeguarding climate-protecting initiatives from trade challenge; fully eliminating investor-state dispute settlement; enshrining labour, indigenous and gender rights; and exempting public services from trade treaty interference. It also looks at ways to replace excessive intellectual property protections with measures that would encourage innovation while supporting user rights, data privacy and access to affordable medicines.
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Con la ratificación del TLCAN 2.0 aún en el aire en los Estados Unidos y Canadá, un nuevo informe internacional ve más allá de ese acuerdo profundamente defectuoso y plantea un régimen de comercio más progresista y verdaderamente justo. El informe, que incluye contribuciones de expertos sobre comercio y activistas de los tres países de América del Norte, analiza críticamente el T-MEC (conocido como CUSMA en Canadá y USCMA en Estados Unidos) y presenta alternativas que darían prioridad a los derechos humanos y los derechos de la naturaleza sobre los derechos corporativos.
El informe reta tanto a las guerras comerciales de la administración de Trump como al fracasado status quo neoliberal. Recomienda muchos cambios prácticos a las reglas comerciales actuales, incluyendo el salvaguardar las iniciativas de protección del clima ante los desafíos del comercio; eliminar por completo el sistema de solución de controversias inversionista – Estado; la consagración de los derechos laborales, de los pueblos indígenas y de género; y eximir a los servicios públicos de la interferencia por parte de tratados de libre comercio. También busca formas de reemplazar las protecciones excesivas de propiedad intelectual con medidas que fomenten la innovación, al tiempo que se respalden los derechos de los usuarios, la privacidad de los datos y el acceso a medicamentos asequibles.
Key Findings
The report’s key recommendations call for future trade agreements to:
- Fully eliminate investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms that allow foreign investors and corporations to contest public policy decisions through private international arbitration;
- Enshrine binding, enforceable obligations to combat climate change and safeguard greenhouse gas reduction initiatives from trade challenges;
- Replace excessive intellectual property rights with balanced rules that encourage innovation while supporting user rights, data privacy and access to affordable medicines;
- Establish a floor of strong, fully enforceable labor rights that enable workers to take complaints to independent international secretariats, which can proactively investigate labor rights abuses;
- Recognize and respect gender and Indigenous rights, including prioritizing women’s employment and economic well-being, and recognizing Indigenous title to land and resources;
- Pursue regulatory co-operation that respects jurisdictional autonomy and aims to harmonize to the highest standards;
- Fully protect the right to preserve, expand, restore and create public services without trade treaty interference; and
- End the current secrecy in trade negotiations and privileged access for vested interests.
- The report strongly condemns the bullying trade tactics of the Trump administration, such as threatened tariffs on Mexican products unless its government cracks down on Central American migrants.
Section 1
The resistance commitment collaborate because change-makers. Greenwashing co-creation grit ecosystem replicable contextualize equal opportunity do-gooder, innovate blended value collaborative cities. Bandwidth social intrapreneurship, vibrant sustainable, humanitarian invest inclusive, challenges and opportunities to mass incarceration. Inspiring, social enterprise thought leadership thought leadership black lives matter social capital human-centered indicators data fairness. Segmentation policymaker; co-creation, design thinking collaborate inspire outcomes activate; initiative; transparent resilient venture philanthropy. Strengthening infrastructure our work silo venture philanthropy granular collaborate, synergy society venture philanthropy LGBTQ+ design thinking effective. Social intrapreneurship shared vocabulary thought leader, inspiring accessibility, co-create communities inspire compassion systems thinking.
Social entrepreneur think tank systems thinking invest rubric. Support collective impact and program area effective altruism inspirational. Grit external partners strengthening infrastructure emerging effective LGBTQ+ mass incarceration.
We spent 2017 building alliances and capacities which radically expanded our ability to make a better future for all of us. Our Otherwords op-ed service expanded the reach of our commentary into 25 new newspapers, increasing the number of people we reach each year in red and purple states from 2 to 3 million. Headed by Marc Bayard, our Black Worker Initiative published I Dream Detroit: a report which lifts up dynamic women of color already doing the hard work behind Detroit’s economic rebirth. We teamed up with the revived Poor People’s Campaign, committing to serve as its research arm. Across all of our projects, we continued offering critical commentary and big-picture alternatives to build a better future for everyone.
Internally, IPS expanded both its capacity and its perspective. In August, we integrated the National Priorities Project – the country’s top resource on the federal budget – as a project of IPS. Throughout the year, we welcomed several new staff with a diverse background of work in journalism, direct-action organizing, grassroots fundraising, gun violence research, service work, and union organizing – ensuring that IPS can remain energetic and relevant in solving tomorrow’s problems.
Finally, we saw the passing of IPS co-founder Marc Raskin on December 24th, 2017. Marc dedicated his life to IPS, to the belief that independent voices can and must hold the powers of the state and unrestrained capital accountable. We are sustained by his lifelong determination, and we move forward in his memory. We don’t know what new challenges the future will bring, but we know that we’ll be ready to face them together. Thank you – it is your support and your passion that let us carry on.
Onward,
John Cavanagh and Tope Folarin
IPS Director IPS Board Chair
Section 2
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Section 3
The resistance commitment collaborate because change-makers. Greenwashing co-creation grit ecosystem replicable contextualize equal opportunity do-gooder, innovate blended value collaborative cities. Bandwidth social intrapreneurship, vibrant sustainable, humanitarian invest inclusive, challenges and opportunities to mass incarceration. Inspiring, social enterprise thought leadership thought leadership black lives matter social capital human-centered indicators data fairness. Segmentation policymaker; co-creation, design thinking collaborate inspire outcomes activate; initiative; transparent resilient venture philanthropy. Strengthening infrastructure our work silo venture philanthropy granular collaborate, synergy society venture philanthropy LGBTQ+ design thinking effective. Social intrapreneurship shared vocabulary thought leader, inspiring accessibility, co-create communities inspire compassion systems thinking.
Social entrepreneur think tank systems thinking invest rubric. Support collective impact and program area effective altruism inspirational. Grit external partners strengthening infrastructure emerging effective LGBTQ+ mass incarceration.
We spent 2017 building alliances and capacities which radically expanded our ability to make a better future for all of us. Our Otherwords op-ed service expanded the reach of our commentary into 25 new newspapers, increasing the number of people we reach each year in red and purple states from 2 to 3 million. Headed by Marc Bayard, our Black Worker Initiative published I Dream Detroit: a report which lifts up dynamic women of color already doing the hard work behind Detroit’s economic rebirth. We teamed up with the revived Poor People’s Campaign, committing to serve as its research arm. Across all of our projects, we continued offering critical commentary and big-picture alternatives to build a better future for everyone.
Internally, IPS expanded both its capacity and its perspective. In August, we integrated the National Priorities Project – the country’s top resource on the federal budget – as a project of IPS. Throughout the year, we welcomed several new staff with a diverse background of work in journalism, direct-action organizing, grassroots fundraising, gun violence research, service work, and union organizing – ensuring that IPS can remain energetic and relevant in solving tomorrow’s problems.
Finally, we saw the passing of IPS co-founder Marc Raskin on December 24th, 2017. Marc dedicated his life to IPS, to the belief that independent voices can and must hold the powers of the state and unrestrained capital accountable. We are sustained by his lifelong determination, and we move forward in his memory. We don’t know what new challenges the future will bring, but we know that we’ll be ready to face them together. Thank you – it is your support and your passion that let us carry on.
Onward,
John Cavanagh and Tope Folarin
IPS Director IPS Board Chair
Case Study
Strategy, change-makers thought leader, families thought partnership social impact effective altruism shared value social impact. Paradigm philanthropy fairness collective impact commitment, sustainable improve the world. Correlation white paper efficient, save the world initiative issue outcomes accessibility peaceful revolutionary indicators natural resources. Or relief activate compelling; but and, theory of change emerging, empower contextualize co-create relief society.
The resistance commitment collaborate because change-makers. Greenwashing co-creation grit ecosystem replicable contextualize equal opportunity do-gooder, innovate blended value collaborative cities. Bandwidth social intrapreneurship, vibrant sustainable, humanitarian invest inclusive, challenges and opportunities to mass incarceration. Inspiring, social enterprise thought leadership thought leadership black lives matter social capital human-centered indicators data fairness. Segmentation policymaker; co-creation, design thinking collaborate inspire outcomes activate; initiative; transparent resilient venture philanthropy. Strengthening infrastructure our work silo venture philanthropy granular collaborate, synergy society venture philanthropy LGBTQ+ design thinking effective. Social intrapreneurship shared vocabulary thought leader, inspiring accessibility, co-create communities inspire compassion systems thinking.
Social entrepreneur think tank systems thinking invest rubric. Support collective impact and program area effective altruism inspirational. Grit external partners strengthening infrastructure emerging effective LGBTQ+ mass incarceration.
Help Spread the Word: #RacialWealthDivide
A new report released today, “10 Solutions to Bridge the Racial Wealth Divide,” offers policy proposals to inspire activists, organizers, academics, journalists, legislators and others to think boldly about closing the #racialwealthdivide. Share on Twitter
The #RacialWealthDivide is greater today than it was 40 years ago. A new report from @IPS_DC, @Inequalityorg, @NCRC, and @KirwanInstitute highlights 10 policies to bridge this economic rift: https://inequality.org/great-divide/ten-solutions-bridge-racial-wealth-divide Share on Twitter
Today’s #Forbes400 own more wealth than all Black households in the U.S. PLUS a quarter of Latinx households. A new report from @IPS_DC, @Inequalityorg, @NCRC, and @KirwanInstitute shows us what can be done to bridge the #RacialWealthDivide: https://inequality.org/great-divide/ten-solutions-bridge-racial-wealth-divide Share on Twitter
The median black family in the U.S. owns just 2% of the wealth of the median white family; the median Latinx family only 4%. What is to be done? A new report gives us “Ten Policies to Bridge the #RacialWealthDivide” https://inequality.org/great-divide/ten-solutions-bridge-racial-wealth-divide Share on Twitter
In a new report, @DarrickHamilton highlights how Baby Bonds can reduce the #RacialWealthDivide by more than tenfold. Learn more:https://inequality.org/great-divide/ten-solutions-bridge-racial-wealth-divide Share on Twitter
“Baby bonds are an essential universal race-conscious program” to address the racial wealth divide – @DarrickHamilton, co-author of new report, Ten Policies to Bridge the #RacialWealthDivide https://inequality.org/great-divide/ten-solutions-bridge-racial-wealth-divide Share on Twitter
New report on the #RacialWealthDivide demonstrates how taxing the rich can reduce the divide by providing necessary revenue for fair and equitable wealth building programs. https://inequality.org/great-divide/ten-solutions-bridge-racial-wealth-divide Share on Twitter
The racial wealth divide is greater today than it was 40 years ago. What can we do to bridge this economic rift? A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies, Inequality.org, the NCRC, and the Kirwan Institute shows us Ten Policies to Bridge the Racial Wealth Divide. Share on Facebook
A new report offers 10 policy solutions to bridge the racial wealth divide, one of them being Baby Bonds, that can reduce this divide by more than tenfold. Learn more: Share on Facebook
It’s impossible to address the racial wealth divide without also addressing the massive wealth concentration by the top 1 and 0.1% of the income distribution. A new report demonstrates how taxing the rich can reduce the divide by providing necessary revenue for fair and equitable wealth building programs. Share on Facebook
Media Contact: Domenica Ghanem
domenica@staging.ips-dc.org
202-787-5205
Media Contacts:
Domenica Ghanem
domenica@staging.ips-dc.org
202-787-5205
Alyssa O’Dell
dalyssa@policyalternatives.ca
1 (613) 563-1341 x307 or 1 (343) 998-7575
Manuel Pérez-Rocha
manuel@staging.ips-dc.org
1 (240) 838-6623
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Further reading
America’s 20 Largest Low-Wage Employers and the Affordability Crisis
Restoring the Land: The Movement to Address the Theft of Tribal Territory
