Re-Opening NAFTA

Published February 17, 2009 @ 10:58PM PT

Friends. Busy busy day, but I had to quickly share this news story. After a mass amount of groups came out to ask the Obama Administration to consider re-negotiating NAFTA, President Obama has started talks about reopening NAFTA for re-negotiation.

As I've said before, NAFTA, the basic framework of the agreement, has environmental and labor protections as side agreements. My argument has always been that we might as well incorporate them into the full agreement so that they're fully enforceable.

During the campaign, Obama made promises to re-negotiate NAFTA and it looks like it might happen. Does this mean fairer trade policies? He did once say that

Global trade is unsustainable if it favors only the few. This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably.

So the idea of Obama re-opening NAFTA for discussion could also lead to the re-negotiation of other Free Trade Agreements the US has to make free trade fair. Looks like trade policy is making it to the agenda of the White House. We'll just have to see how it all develops.

[image: Tommy Christopher/AOL News]

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Comments (1)

That is really encouraging news! Thank you for the post Zarah.

Posted by D W on 02/18/2009 @ 12:40AM PT
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Author

Zarah is the Operations Manager for the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store, a project of the international human rights organization, Global Exchange. Alongside her work with marginalized communities from all over the world to get their products into the international market, Zarah serves to educate and inform the public about a more just and sustainable trading system.