San Diego officials want federal negotiators to be mindful of cross-border trade as they renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. And there is also a call to boost environmental protections.
Tough environmental protections promised when NAFTA was originally negotiated, never actually made it into the trade deal.
Environmental observers hope that gets fixed as the Trump administration talks about restructuring the three-nation agreement. Talks between Canada, Mexico and the United States opened about a week ago.
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Penalties for enforcement can be toughened and environmental disputes can be brought out of the shadows, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Amanda Maxwell.
Current rules call for disputes to be judged in closed-door meetings with private-sector lawyers.
"The lack of transparency, frankly, and the rush with which they're trying to push through the process is concerning, but as far as the ultimate results go, we still are optimistic," said Maxwell.
Maxwell said climate change is also an issue that needs correction in any renegotiated treaty. That may be problematic because the Trump Administration has been reluctant to see climate change as a serious issue.
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Even so, Maxwell remains optimistic.
"Those agreements, while they are really good efforts at trilateral collaboration and cooperation, they don't have any teeth in terms of enforcement and implementing stronger environmental standards," Maxwell said.
