The Trouble With NAFTA: It’s Far Too Feeble …
May 1st, 2008 by WILLIAM KERN
Now as President Bush prepares to leave office and the ‘Three Amigos’ have said their last goodbyes, Mexican columnists have begun to weigh in on the success of their final NAFTA Summit.
While NAFTA has become increasingly unpopular in the United States, the same can be said in Mexico - but for far different reasons.
There, the dissatisfaction stems from the feebleness of NAFTA’s mechanisms for enforcing its decisions on the three federal governments, and the perceived lack of respect given Mexico in relation to its two other North American partners - especially Canada.
“The bilateral meeting between the U.S. and Canada had a tone of strategic partnership. Bush expressed his gratitude to his counterpart Harper’s decision to keep troops in Afghanistan and help other allies like France continue to back up the U.S. invasion. At the meeting with Mexico there was no agreement even on a basic and inexpensive plan - the Merida Initiative - which will soon be up for discussion at the U.S. Capitol. In North America there continues to exist two intense bilateral relations (U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico), a more distant bilateral relation (Canada-Mexico) and an incipient trilateral relationship.”
As far as why NAFTA isn’t working properly, de Castro writes:
“There are no institutions that can serve as engines to boost integration. The negotiators of NAFTA were either optimistic or naive not to create institutions that could foster greater integration. … The only thing that was created were 22 working groups and a commission on free trade. The groups have never worked and the commission is nothing but an annual meeting of trade ministers. And of course, they don’t have the clout to make demands on the federal governments of the three countries.”
And remarking on the changing outlook of the United States and the U.S. election, de Castro writes:
“The United States has turned inward and is becoming a wary empire. Two huge clouds threaten its social health and relations with its southern neighbor: trade protectionism and racist, anti-immigrant sentiments toward Mexicans. The United States, where fear has become the best electoral weapon - used so effectively by Bush in 2004 and 2006 and now being utilized by Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - is quite a ways from the optimistic nation that negotiated NAFTA with its two neighbors.”
By Rafael Fernández de Castro
Translated By Barbara Howe
April 24, 2008
Mexico - Excelsior - Original Article (Spanish)
Judging from the results of the recent summit of North American leaders in New Orleans, the idea of the framers of the North American Free Trade Agreement to create an economic community in this region is beginning to fade. What was a bold and revolutionary idea which contributed so greatly to the prosperity of the peoples of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada is becoming just a historical footnote.
In New Orleans, the leaders of North America pledged to continue to defend NAFTA and to resolve the bottlenecks in the transport situation of Mexico, where the letter of the treaty has yet to be fulfilled. In addition, they agreed to a timid homogenization of industry standards.
[Editor’s Note: NAFTA requires that all roads in the U.S., Canada and Mexico be opened to carriers from all three countries. Canadian trucking companies have had full access to U.S. roads since 2001, but due to “safety and smuggling” concerns, Mexican trucks have only been allowed about 20 miles inside the country at certain border crossings where they would then transfer loads to U.S. drivers.]
In New Orleans there were two types of meetings: bilateral and trilateral. On one hand, the Mexican President along with his counterparts in the U.S. and Canada. And secondly, there were four trilateral meetings: a dinner, a breakfast, two social occasions and two workshops - one with entrepreneurs and the other with Secretaries of State responsible for security and trade.
The bilateral meeting between the United States and Canada had a tone of strategic partnership. Bush expressed his gratitude to his counterpart Harper’s decision to keep troops in Afghanistan and help other allies like France continue to back up the U.S. invasion. At the meeting with Mexico there was no agreement even on a basic and inexpensive plan - the Merida Initiative - which will soon be up for discussion at the U.S. Capitol. In North America there continues to exist two intense bilateral relations (U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico), a more distant bilateral relation (Canada-Mexico) and an incipient trilateral relationship.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of U.S. involvement with Latin America.
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 9:27 pm and is filed under North America, Columnists, USA, Cartoons, Bush Administration, NAFTA, Newsweek Blogitics, Newspapers, Mexico, Cartoon Commentary, Foreign Affairs, Economy, 2008 Elections, Energy, Canada, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
