Tangled Up in Green: Playground Politics in a Global Market
Presidential election campaign 2008 is well underway. And already the grade school politics are brought to the election playground.
In recent news, both Democratic front runners, in an attempt to woo voters, called for renegotiations of NAFTA. They also threatened to pull out of the trade agreement if U.S. demands aren’t met. Clearly a case of, “do what I want because our economic and military might can beat up your economic and military might.”
The North American Free Trade Agreement, has been under scrutiny since its inception.
Thankfully we have Republican Candidate John McCain to defend this groundbreaking trade agreement.
NAFTA isn’t perfect. It was the first time a free trade agreement existed among such economically disparate countries. It was definitely a great experiment, and a lot has been learned from the results. There is no denying that there have been significant advances in a globally sustainable market that was enabled by NAFTA.
The U.S. economy thrives under NAFTA. As do Canadian and Mexican economies. But more important than just the economic benefits of NAFTA are the environmental impacts of the accord (not the car, although there are some positive environmental effects of high gas mileage as well). Within NAFTA was written a supplement, the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation. It’s the first time that environmental provisions were written into a trilateral free trade agreement. NAFTA has set the framework for government environmental protection and support.
However, the NAAEC only provides regulations for countries to enforce their own environmental laws. To deal with the non-enforcement of environmental regulations the NAAEC created the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation to ensure the enforcement of environmental laws and monitor the adverse environmental impacts of the trade agreement. In conjunction, the NAAEC also created the North American Development Bank to financially assist in environmental projects.
With so much on the line, why would Democratic candidates, who seem to want to find solutions to the economy and the environment, threaten to pull out of such a promising trade agreement? There is room to environmentally clean up NAFTA. John McCain has a vision to lead the U.S. into a sustainable global economy. We can do all the green we want at home, but if we can’t work with our neighbors to do the same, the planet is still doomed. NAFTA’s laid the groundwork to make that happen. Let’s not let our childish threats ruin a good thing.
McCain photo by christhedunn
Obama Clinton photo by eventeo
