Criticism of Treaty Though NAFTA has brought many positive effects to Canada, U.S, and Mexico, it also resulted in many negative effects as well. This is what member countries will be focusing on during the renegotiation of the agreement. A prominent issue is the trade deficit present between member countries. In 2016, U.S had a $12.5 billion USD trade deficit with Canada, and U.S had a $55.6 billion USD trade deficit with Mexico. Another big issue when NAFTA was introduced was the loss of jobs. From 1994-2010, 682,900 U.S jobs were lost and this was mainly in the manufacturing workforce. A major reason for this was because labour in Mexico was cheap, resulting in many big American companies moving to Mexico. Along with that, some …show more content…
Currently, issues are being discussed in the NAFTA renegotiation, but the importance of each issue differs among each country. Firstly, the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), known as Chapter 11, needs to be reformed as it is resulting in the loss of millions of dollars win or lose. This Chapter is only protecting foreign investors, and if they feel that they have not been treated fairly like the other investors; they can file a lawsuit which costs $4 million USD on average to defend a case. Canada is currently facing ISDS lawsuits worth $2.6 billion USD. (Huffington Post, 2017) A way to fix this matter is to go through a court and win; be approved), before being passed to discuss with panelists. Figure 6.1 shows the annual number of ISDS lawsuit cases involving …show more content…
International trade and investments impact the environment and even climate change. It has been brushed to the side for too long, and it is time to discuss ways to keep the environment cleaner. Though economic prosperity is key to all countries, each country must play their part in keeping the country as clean and eco-friendly as possible. Getting rid of or minimalizing the burning of fossil fuels, carbon pollution, etc. all will help the environment. Another issue to fix is cross-border labour mobility problems. Agreeing to expand the current Chapter 16 of NAFTA will help discuss solutions to let professionals and business persons move through the border for work-related reasons. It should not be a struggle to get in and out of the country. With the renegotiations taking place, NAFTA 2.0 is hoping to address and resolve the major issues at