Will Get Fooled Again!

USMCA Fraud – “a Macabre Joke”

I’m going to take an excellent article from Counterpunch by Pete Dolack on the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) and distill it.  As you know the Congress approved the bill with overwhelming Democratic Party support.  At the last debate the great enemy of Wall Street and corporate America Elizabeth Warren also signaled her approval, going along with Donald Trump’s negotiators and the Republican Party and the rest of the Democratic Field except Sanders.  Even though Warren stated that the problem with trade agreements is that they are fashioned by corporate negotiators. Republican Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, said 95% of the new deal “is the same as NAFTA.” 

Sanders was the only one to oppose it at the recent Democratic debate, though he only made a quick point about its fraudulent nature on the environmental front.  The AFL-CIO in all their gullible misleadership glory supported the agreement, probably under the heavy influence of the UAW leadership.

NAFTA+ Re-Run - Trump Signs USMCA with support from Democrats, Liberal and Mexican 'progressives'

Dolack says:  “Although Democrats and public pressure forced through some improvements, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), or NAFTA 2, isn’t substantially different and remains a document of corporate domination.”  Dolack speculates that Pelosi and the Democratic Congress went along to show they can ‘get things done.’  I suspect they went along because they agreed.  AMLO and Trudeau also gave in, which is not surprising given Trump’s threats of more sanctions and tariffs.

SAME OLD, SAME OLD

1.       Chapter 14 on Investment.  It contains an expectation of a maximum profit on derivatives, speculation, intellectual and intangible property and capital outlays.  In the past tribunals over ‘damages’ back up the claim to a maximum profit against claims to local content, health, safety, worker or environmental claims.  Chapter 14.6 supports “customary international law,” a phrase that refers to adherence to prior decisions by free trade tribunals. Chapter 14.8 forbids nationalization or expropriation, even in an ‘indirect’ way, which means certain U.S., Canadian or Mexican regulations, like health or environment, that impede profits.

2.       Chapter 14.17 on ‘social responsibility’ is all voluntary.  In this section the words ‘must’ and ‘shall’ are now replaced by ‘may’ and ‘can.’ 

3.       Chapter 17 prohibits any limitations on international financial institutions or capital repatriation. This is Wall’s Street’s favorite section.

4.       Chapters 15 & 19 prohibit any restrictions on “cross-border transfers of information” which is Hollywood, Microsoft and Google’s favorite section, as personal information cannot be protected. This is based on a prior TISA ‘free trade’ agreement that was to benefit professional services, but can be expanded to include communications services.

5.       Chapter 11 is about “technical barriers to trade” which adapts language from the WTO wholesale. It invites ‘citizens’ from other countries to be involved in creating regulations.  This is a corporate lobbyist’s favorite section and shows again how the USMCA is really an attack on sovereignty and democracy by the most powerful corporations and state.

6.       Chapter 14.D.3 says disputes will be settled by the ICSID, an arm of the World Bank, though the parties can also decide on another forum.  These panels must be stocked with those who have ‘expertise’ and ‘experience’ in this setting, which usually means corporate lawyers. So ‘secret tribunals’ are not banned, as Trump’s claim went, just moved around with the same cast of characters.

IMPROVEMENTS?

Dolack says there are 3 improvements in the USMCA language over the NAFTA language. 

1. Hearings over disputes are to be public, though there is nothing about public notice. 

2. An agreement between Mexico and the U.S. upholds the right to collective bargaining and free association (i.e. real unions). However it is up to the U.S. to sue and no Republican administration will sue.  Even a neo-liberal Democratic Party administration might not sue, as they lived happily with NAFTA for years.

3.  Article 24.2 includes pro-environmental language similar to past NAFTA language in the non-binding ‘encouraged to promote’ style, which Dolack says “has proved to be meaningless window dressing.” It explicitly says that environmental rules cannot constitute a “restriction on trade.”  This is a giant loophole, as prior WTO rulings have gone against environmental rules for dolphins, gasoline additives, PCBs and others. 

Counterpunch is carried at May Day, along with many other magazines and newspapers.

In his survey Dolack does not mention the USMCA’s open door for the gas, oil and fracking industries, which enables global warming.  Another thing omitted seems to be the limitations on generic drugs in the USMCA, but Bloomberg reports that those 10-year protections to limit generics were thankfully scrubbed. Dolack does not cover the increased pro-corporate protections for 'intellectual property' either. He also does not mention the increases in Mexican auto worker pay and U.S. content rules which inspired the UAW, though reports have shown the Mexican auto industry is not worried.  Perhaps because wages are already above the $16 floor.

The Trump administration has cited 137 countries for creating “barriers to trade” which is the main logic of these agreements. The USMCA, like NAFTA, the TPP, the TISA, the TTIP or GAAT and other ‘free trade' agreements mandate that the whole world has to roll over in order to allow imperial penetration into their economies.  Chlorinated U.S. chicken anyone?  Much of the language Trump’s negotiators are using is adopted wholesale from the rejected TPP.  Canadian progressives and the Canadian Labour Congress, small U.S. farmers and progressive Ag groups, nearly every environmental group and all socialists have opposed or did not support the USMCA.

Original article in Counterpunch: A-Macabre-Joke

P.S. - Counterpunch reports on 1/29 that the USMCA has a 'poison pill' section which allows the U.S. to pull out of the USMCA if either Mexico or Canada sign a trade agreement with China.  National sovereignty anyone? 

Counterpunch is available at May Day's excellent periodical's section.

Prior reviews on this issue, use the blog search box upper left: “NAFTA 2,” “Impeachapalooza,” “To Serve God and Wal-Mart,” “Duh! We Shuda Knowed!”  “A Foodies Guide to Capitalism,” “Reviving the Strike,” “Embedded With Organized Labor,” “Save Our Unions,” “Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America,” “Drug War Capitalism.”

Red Frog

January 28, 2020