A retreat in science-based policy

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Setting the table

The proposed new NAFTA, dubbed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), would expedite exports and imports of food and agricultural products, purportedly based on “scientific principles” and “science-based decision making,” (Article 9.3.1h). However, the Trump administration’s attacks on the science, economic analysis and budgets of government agencies, the so-called “administrative state” which former presidential adviser Steve Bannon vowed to “deconstruct”, weaken trade policy implementation and enforcement capacity.1 Inconsistent implementation and weak enforcement could both disrupt trade and pose risks to consumers of imported foods. The agreement, if approved by Congress, would institutionalize the Trump administration’s anti-consumer, anti-environmental protection and anti-food safety enforcement agenda for a generation in the new NAFTA text.