Letter to the Hon. Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce - Demanding Transparency in NAFTA Renegotiation

Letter

Dear Secretary Ross,

We are encouraged to see the Trump Administration's reexamining and possible renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) so that it better promotes American jobs and businesses. We believe that the success of any renegotiation will be defined by putting working families, American jobs, and healthy communities at the forefront of U.S. trade policy. In order to achieve this end, we respectfully urge you to have an open and transparent process for the American public during the renegotiation process.

We have all learned through experience that creating an open, participatory process is the only way that the American public will have confidence in NAFTA renegotiations and other trade agreements moving forward. The NAFTA renegotiation process, and any other trade negotiation, must be transparent and involve broad stakeholder participation -- unlike the opaque and interest group-dominated negotiations that produced NAFTA in the 1990's. Prior to the launch of new negotiations, we encourage you to invite the public to help formulate American positions and comment on draft proposals. We would also encourage negotiated texts be made publicly available during negotiations with opportunity for comment after each negotiating round.

We believe that the public will have more confidence in the trade policy-making process moving forward if business-as-usual tactics are rejected for goal-oriented objectives that provide a fair, open process to ensure that future trade agreements put American jobs, businesses, workers and their families first and foremost.
We look forward to working with you in crafting trade agreements that benefit all Americans, and thank you for your consideration of this request.