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NAFTA Should Work for Everyone—Not Just Investors

The Stand

In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump all recognized that workers and communities have lost trust in the North American Free Trade Agreement’s approach to globalization. They all said we should manage globalization differently.

Over the last few months, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. have had seven meetings to renegotiate NAFTA. To understand the renegotiations, we should know what was wrong with the original NAFTA and what we want in a new one.

I’m 100% in favor of trade. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone opposed to trade. We take pride when we export software, airplanes, apples and wheat. That’s never been the issue.

The central question is, “Who gets the gains from globalization?” The purpose of an economy is to raise living standards. Trade, more than most public policies, creates winners and losers.

The winners under NAFTA—global companies and investors who can move production to low-wage countries—have done very well. But when workers, communities and the environment are squeezed into decline, we are...