| Attacking NAFTA appears to have been a favorite | | | | "wrong" with the clause? Nearly half of the 49 claims |
| sport among North American exporters and politicians | | | | filed to date have to do with governments imposing |
| for years. The recent barrage of fire came from | | | | environmental restrictions and meddling with resource |
| Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and | | | | management. |
| Hillary Clinton. To this, Canada's three "stooges," the | | | | And then there are the border issues. Partly, NAFTA |
| Prime Minister, the Trade Minister and the Finance | | | | is sadly imperfect in this particular area, because it is |
| Minister, responded with utmost disgust. Well, | | | | a trilateral agreement. For example, Canada would like |
| perhaps not "utmost," since all three would like to | | | | the U.S. to stop treating its northern border the same |
| change a thing or two about NAFTA that bothered | | | | way it treats its southern border with Mexico. The |
| them as well, but they would not go so far as to | | | | reasoning is that problems at the north U.S. border |
| bring the whole thing under very public scrutiny. | | | | are not the same as the problems at its south |
| Since 1994, when Canada, the U.S. and Mexico signed | | | | border, which is certainly the truth, but for the U.S. to |
| the treaty, there were three distinct areas that | | | | actually admit it would most likely not fare well with |
| never quite worked: the dispute resolution system, | | | | Hispanic voters. |
| investors' ability to sue governments, and more and | | | | Imagine this: U.S. Homeland Security is pondering |
| more security layering at the countries' borders. | | | | building a fence in the north that would match the |
| While the dispute resolution system worked for the | | | | one that is being built in the south. Never mind the |
| most part, Canada and the U.S. have been made | | | | fact that the Canada-U.S. border is 8,900 kilometers |
| painfully aware of its imperfections, to say the least, | | | | long (versus "only" 3,100 kilometers with Mexico), but |
| through the softwood lumber dispute. The dispute | | | | just how many Canadians does anyone expect to |
| lasted for decades and has yet to be resolved | | | | swim across the Detroit River searching for better |
| through NAFTA. Recently, the softwood lumber issue | | | | jobs in the U.S.? |
| has been transferred to the London Court of | | | | Through border issues is how we arrive at what is |
| Arbitration, a private court typically used to settle | | | | wrong with NAFTA and its potential resolution. As |
| private companies' disputes, not disputes between | | | | signed in 1994, NAFTA is a trilateral treaty. However, |
| countries. | | | | there is no comparison between Canada and Mexico |
| Investors' ability to sue governments has been a | | | | and their respective relationships with the U.S. So, |
| sore point for years, too. It was the U.S. that insisted | | | | how about going back to pre-NAFTA days and |
| upon this clause and, as far as anyone knows, only | | | | having different bilateral treaties, Canada with the U.S. |
| lawyers have received any benefit from it (of the | | | | and Mexico with the U.S., separately, and a number |
| monetary kind, of course). As far as Canada is | | | | of them, instead of a blanket and a poorly |
| concerned, it would most likely and enthusiastically | | | | functioning one? |
| vote to have it scrapped once and for all. What's | | | | |