Once upon a time, a presidential candidate named Barack Obama characterized the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), as ‘a big mistake’ with ‘devastating’ consequences. Trying to woo the base of the Democratic Party, he positioned himself during the 2008 presidential primaries as a politician wary of the ‘free trade’ model of corporate globalization.
Today, with campaign pledges long since tossed overboard, Obama’s administration is trying to extend NAFTA-style provisions across two oceans. It is pursuing both a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and a Transatlantic Economic and Trade Pact with Europe. If passed, the deals would become the most far-reaching agreements of their kind since the World Trade Organization (WTO) formed in the mid-1990s.
