Lessons from NAFTA: Interview with Gallagher and Wise

Kevin Gallagher and Timothy A. Wise were interviewed in March 2010 about two recent reports they helped co-author on the impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Mexico and the reforms needed to ensure that U.S. trade agreements have a positive impact on its developing country trading partners. In a Policy Outlook paper with the Carnegie Endowment’s Eduardo Zepeda, they offer a detailed look at Mexico’s poor economic performance under the “NAFTA model.”  In a Task Force Report with other NAFTA experts assembled by Boston University’s Pardee Center, they detail the needed reforms to current and future trade agreements in the areas of manufacturing, agriculture, services, intellectual property, investment, labor, environment, and migration.  In this interview at the Pardee Center, they outline the main findings of the reports, with a particular emphasis on NAFTA’s controversial investment chapter (one of Gallagher’s ongoing research areas) and the impacts on agriculture (Wise’s specialty). The work is based on ten years of research by the Global Development and Environment Institute on the Lessons from NAFTA.