NAFTA and TPP

Public Citizen has published a devastating report on the effects of NAFTA as it turns 20. The conclusions of the in-depth report are summarized in the report's title:

One Million U.S. Jobs Lost, Mass Displacement and Instability in Mexico, Record Income Inequality, Scores of Corporate Attacks on Environmental and Health Laws

Like TPP (TransPacific Partnership), NAFTA is about more than trade. It "created new privileges and protections for foreign investors that incentivized the offshoring of investment and jobs by eliminating many of the risks normally associated with moving production to low-wage countries. NAFTA allowed foreign investors to directly challenge before foreign tribunals domestic policies and actions, demanding government compensation for policies that they claimed undermined their expected future profits. NAFTA also contained chapters that required the three countries to limit regulation of services, such as trucking and banking; extend medicine patent monopolies; limit food and product safety standards and border inspection; and waive domestic procurement preferences, such as Buy American." And, like TPP, many promises were made about improved economic life in North America.