Mexico-EU Trade Agreement “Could Be Worse Than NAFTA”

11 June 2015

In These Times - When the European Union negotiated its first free trade treaty with Mexico beginning in 1997 and implemented in 2000, many of its provisions, such as deregulation of goods and services and trade liberalization, were lifted straight from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed into law just five years earlier.

"In reality, however, few of the promises that came with the Mexico-EU trade agreement have materialized. A report by the Transnational Institute released in 2007 found that despite promises of trade equity and mutual enrichment, Mexico had a significant trade deficit with the EU, Spanish companies had sued the Mexican government for supposedly tampering with their ability to earn profits and there was little oversight of labor violations by European companies working in extraction operations. The Democratic Clause, meanwhile, was “purely decorative.” "

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