Pardee Center to Host Experts’ Meeting on NAFTA

A small group of experts on various aspects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and North American integration will come together on March 20 for a one-day workshop at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University. Titled "The Future of NAFTA," the meeting will be the initial step in development of a report for policy makers presenting the experts’ collective thoughts about how NAFTA and the institutions for economic integration in the region can be reformed to enhance the long-run proposects for all three parties to the agreement.

The workshop will be chaired by Pardee Center Research Fellow Kevin P. Gallagher of BU’s Department of International Relations, an expert on international trade policies and development. The workshop and report are sponsored by the Pardee Center under the auspecies of its Global Economic Governance Initiative.

There is increasing consensus that NAFTA was not adquately designed to serve as a longer-range platform for sustainable economic development in the region. While the trade pact was designed to be permanent, there is widespread agreement in all three countries (Canada, Mexico and the U.S.) that significant improvements need to be made. The election of President Barak Obama, who pledged to assess the impacts of NAFTA for its sustainable long-run benefits for all three parties to the agreement, has galvanized thinking about what the future of North American integration should look like.

Prior to the workshop, the invited experts each will prepare a short article outlining the need for reform in their particular area of expertise, the overarching goal for reform in that area, and specific instruments that will be needed to meet those goals. They will give presentations on their work during the meeting.

A short report that synthesizes the discussion at the workshop and includes revised drafts of the short papers will be published after the meeting. Some members of the group will convene a second meeting in Washington, D.C. in the late spring or early summer to officially introduce the report and to brief policy makers on its conclusions.

The invited participants have expertise relating specifically to NAFTA in the fields of trade in services, investment, agriculture, intellectual property rules, the environment, competitiveness, migration and labor. The report will cover these issues.

After its public launch, the report will be available on this web site and through other outlets to be announced.