In the midst of a lot of chaotic pronouncements about trade and tariffs, it has been hard to know how to weigh in on the trade policies we need. The current review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) provides an opportunity to address changes since that agreement was enacted in 2020 and to fix problems that have become apparent during its implementation. On October 28, IATP, the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) and the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) submitted joint comments on the review. In our submission we called on negotiators to:
- Improve transparency in food labels: Under current trade rules, mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for meat has been deemed illegal. Those rules also create uncertainty for Mexican programs for better nutrition labels and GMO labels. We call on the three countries to amend the trade agreement to add a “Peace Clause” on transparency in labeling in which the three countries agree not to bring trade disputes against each other’s labeling policies. Parties to the USMCA should also commit to negotiations to permanently carve out measures related to transparency in food labeling from trade disputes.
- Encourage innovative seed systems: Remove the requirement in the chapter on Intellectual Property Rights that all three countries ratify UPOV 91 (something Mexican farm groups have strongly resisted). UPOV 91 is a restrictive treaty that prohibits farmers from saving and sharing protected seeds, thus greatly restricting their ability to develop new varieties that meet their specific needs and respond to changing climate conditions.
- Develop new solutions to overproduction and low prices of dairy and other agricultural commodities. This is a complex problem that will require changes to U.S. farm programs, but changes in trade policy are also relevant. As a starting point, the U.S. should abandon its trade challenges to Canada’s dairy supply management program and instead convene a participatory trinational commission to learn from that and other public programs designed to stabilize prices and supplies and enhance resilient food systems.
There are a lot of reasons to be critical of current trade agreements. In June, more than 680 organizations issued a letter to USTR calling for a series of changes on labor, environment, investment, digital commerce and rural economies, among other things. Our proposals with NFFC and WORC don’t address all of the changes that would be needed for fair trade in agriculture, but they do signal that there are rational solutions that could be beneficial to farmers, consumers and workers in all three countries.
Find the full submission from IATP, NFFC, and WORC here.
