Gallagher Publishes Op-Ed on Trump’s NAFTA Strategy

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Kevin GallagherProfessor of Global Development Policy at the Frederick S. Pardee of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed on U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach to changing the terms of trade deals, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Gallagher’s Op-Ed, entitled “What Will Trump Deliver on Trade?” was published in The American Prospect on May 10, 2017.

From the text of the article:

President Trump appears to be serious about changing the terms of U.S. trade deals, having recently drawn up an executive order to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to show that he means business about renegotiating the deal. But will President Trump change trade deals to make North American citizens and workers better off—or just business?

NAFTA, which drastically cut tariffs and liberalized financial flows, but did not harmonize social standards, was sold to the American public as a deal where, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, “U.S. exports to Mexico will continue to outstrip Mexican exports to the United States,” where Mexico would finally “export goods, not people” and all parties would be better off.

There is now a consensus that NAFTA was oversold. The U.S. has a glaring trade deficit with Mexico, NAFTA put downward pressure on wages and regulation for social welfare, accentuated job losses in the most vulnerable communities, and put the governance of global trade in the hands of the most powerful corporate interests in the United States.  These impacts are in part due to the fact that the rules of NAFTA were largely written by corporate-led interest groups in the first place.

Kevin P. Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at Boston University, where he co-directs the Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI).  GEGI’s mission is to advance policy relevant research on governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment on a global scale. You can follow him on Twitter @KevinPGallagher.