Marc Thiessen’s column (Sun Journal, July 19) notes that USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or NAFTA.2) will bring auto jobs back to America. The column states the agreement includes provisions that “requires between 40% and 45% of each vehicle be produced by workers earning a minimum of $16 per hour,” including the right to strike; “the strongest, most advanced and most comprehensive set of environmental obligations of any U.S. trade agreement”; and “unlike the NAFTA, the USMCA’s environmental provisions have been incorporated into the core text of the agreement (and) are fully enforceable”; and “includes the strongest, most advanced, and most comprehensive set of environmental obligations of any U.S. trade agreement.”
However, the USMCA does not include rigorous monitoring or enforcement procedures to ensure that the proposed regulations will result in actual change. One provision would allow pharmaceutical companies a 10-year monopoly period for biologic medicines which would result in denying the public of reasonably priced medicine; new labeling rules would permit companies to conceal ingredients in processed foods; and loopholes would enable some of the world’s worst polluters to continue to attack environmental and public health regulations in a nonstop manner.
The UAMCA is not a good deal for Americans.
Mary Roussel, Auburn
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