Replacing NAFTA: Eight essential changes to an environmentally destructive deal
Sierra Club | August 2017
Replacing NAFTA: Eight essential changes to an environmentally destructive deal
For more than two decades, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has harmed communities across Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. — particularly people of color and lower income families — by undermining environmental protections, eliminating jobs, increasing air and water pollution, eroding wages, and fueling climate change. Widespread public opposition to such trade deals has swelled.
As leading environmental organizations, we have long called for a fundamentally different approach to trade – one that prioritizes the needs of people and planet. Thus, our basis for evaluating any NAFTA renegotiation is clear: Does it support – not undermine – a more stable climate, clean air and water, healthy communities, Indigenous peoples, and good jobs? If a deal is delivered that fails to reflect these broadly-shared priorities, we will work with our labor, health, consumer, family farm, and other allies to ensure that it meets the same fate as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
To transform NAFTA from a polluter-friendly deal into one that supports environmental protection, any renegotiation must include, at a minimum, these eight changes.
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