FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 29, 2017
CIEL Senior Attorney Melissa Blue Sky’s statement on the outcome of the #BeyondNAFTA summit in Mexico City:
The people of North America—and the world—deserve a trade system that protects the environment and promotes economic equality, rather than undermining them. This can only be achieved by making human rights, economic equality, and a safe environment integral to its objectives. And policymakers must insist that NAFTA negotiations be conducted transparently and democratically, and that it is informed by an engaged, informed public.
After two days in Mexico City, social movements, trade unions, environmentalists, farmers, indigenous peoples, migrants, and human rights groups, have established a broad and diverse movement ready and able to demand that any new North American agreement prioritizes people and planet above profits. Participants from dozens of organizations were united in their support for enforceable commitments to protect labor and the environment, the rights of migrant workers and indigenous people, binding obligations to address climate change, and opposition to Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS).