By Ken Neumann
National Director for Canada
United Steelworkers

John McCain apparently thinks Canadians, and perhaps American voters, will be reassured as he brings his Republican presidential campaign north of the border this week and promises to defend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The truth, however, is different. Citizens in both countries, especially workers, could benefit greatly from a thorough rewrite of NAFTA to put their interests first, rather than the interests of corporate investors who alone have reaped the benefits in the 15 years since NAFTA was signed.

Moreover, the evidence shows that Canadians are completely comfortable with the idea of renegotiating NAFTA, an idea that surged to the forefront in the Democratic presidential primaries this spring.
A poll conducted in March by Angus Reid Strategies found that only 24 per cent of Canadian voters believe NAFTA should continue under its current terms, as opposed to 45 per cent who said, “Canada should do whatever is necessary to renegotiate the terms of NAFTA” and eight per cent who want to scrap the treaty altogether, while 22 per cent were “not sure”.

On the basis of the United Steelworkers union experience representing 850,000 workers in North America, including 280,000 in Canada, Canadians have it right.

Too often, NAFTA has been used against the interests of workers and communities, by encouraging a rush to the lowest labour and environmental standards and by giving corporations an opening to overturn regulations that operate in the public interest. A prime example is Canada’s restrictions on exporting raw logs from British Columbia, which is now facing a challenge from Merrill and Ring, a US-based company with Canadian timber holdings.
Perhaps one of the reasons most Canadians want changes to NAFTA is because as currently written it gives rights to corporations to sue governments but gives no rights to citizens or communities. Canada is being sued because of the practice of requiring forestry companies to try to sell raw logs to Canadian sawmills before selling them abroad. The purpose of this requirement is to make sure Canadian sawmills, which employ Canadian workers, have a shot at getting the logs before they are exported.

If this lawsuit is successful, Canada will have to lift the requirement and pay damages to Merril and Ring. Unfortunately, there is no quid pro quo for citizens, workers or communities. In fact, as the representative of many Canadian sawmill workers, the USW is struggling to be heard in this lawsuit so the perspective of workers can be put forward.

Here’s a bold idea: Instead of using trade policy to give rights to corporations, why not use trade policy to raise the living standards of working people in each trading nation? Why not make tough environmental and labour standards part of the basic enforcement mechanisms of trade deals, rather than the toothless window-dressing in the NAFTA side agreements on labour and environment?

This should start with an overhauled North American trade agreement and spread to the rest of the world. If corporations are lowering their costs by repressing labour rights, or by exploiting environmental loopholes, offsetting duties could be imposed on imports to eliminate that kind of unfair advantage.
Using duties to ensure fair trade is nothing new. Most countries currently impose duties on imported products if those products are made with subsidies. These measures, called countervail duties, are used by both Canada and the United States. NAFTA does not prevent their use.

If subsidizing a company is an “unfair trade practice” resulting in the application of a duty, then shouldn’t a duty be applied when a trading nation keeps wages low by failing to support collective bargaining rights?

Trade should not only be about giving rights to corporations. The United Steelworkers, along with more and more North Americans, believe trade should be about raising the living standards of the citizens of trading nations. Measures need to be put into NAFTA to ensure that happens. There is no reason to believe that trade deals are cast in stone and unable to be improved.

John McCain’s surprising campaign detour to Canada is at least providing comic relief to the evident discomfort of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, who would rather that everyone forget the Tories’ effort to meddle in the US election on McCain’s behalf with a leaked diplomatic memo on NAFTA.
It would only be poetic justice if Canadians used this occasion to put back on the agenda the important issue of making trade agreements work for communities and families, rather than corporations, starting with a respectful and effective renegotiation of NAFTA.

Ken Neumann is the United Steelworkers’ National Director for Canada, based in Toronto