What’s up with NAFTA? Here’s how to get started.

The US, Canada, and Mexico have just finished the first round of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) negotiations. Like all trade agreements, participants are looking for terms that will benefit them.

The U.S. objectives are on record (there are lots):

For agriculture, we want:

Duty-free market access for agricultural products
Reduced or eliminated tariffs for our products.
Elimination of non-tariff barriers—quotas, subsidies, price discrimination and undercutting.
Reasonable adjustment periods for regulatory changes
Reduction in burdens caused by regulatory differences.

For “Sanitary and Phytosanitary”—food safety—measures, we want:

Enforceable science-based measures
Allowing countries to set their own levels of food-safety protection
Expeditious resolution of unwarranted barriers to US food products
Enforceable rules to ensure non-discriminatory implementation of science-based measures.
Transparency in negotiations

Politico Pro Morning Agriculture has a truly wonderful summary of the positions of the three trading partners (if it’s behind a paywall, try this).

Timeline