I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 191 
To assess the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement 
(NAFTA), to require further negotiation of certain provisions of the 
NAFTA, and to provide for the withdrawal from the NAFTA unless 
certain conditions are met. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 4, 2013 
Ms. KAPTUR introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To assess the impact of the North American Free Trade 
Agreement (NAFTA), to require further negotiation of 
certain provisions of the NAFTA, and to provide for 
the withdrawal from the NAFTA unless certain condi-
tions are met. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘NAFTA Accountability 
Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) RISING DEFICITS IN UNITED STATES TRADE 
ACCOUNTS.—One of the purposes of the North 
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), as stat-
ed in the preamble, is to ‘‘create an expanded and 
secure market’’ for goods and services. Instead, the 
NAFTA has resulted in a spiraling United States 
trade deficit with Mexico and Canada that exceeded 
$93,000,000,000 
in 
2010, 
and 
more 
than 
$1,300,000,000,000 since the agreement’s inception. 
Rather than continuous development and expansion 
as envisioned and growing trade surpluses for the 
United States, the NAFTA has resulted in United 
States job losses and escalating trade deficits. 
(2) EROSION OF THE UNITED STATES MANU-
FACTURING
BASE.—One of the purposes of the 
NAFTA is to enhance the competitiveness of firms 
in the global market. However, rather than increase 
the ability of the manufacturing sector in the United 
States to compete in the world market, the NAFTA 
has facilitated and accelerated the outsourcing of 
United States manufacturing facilities and jobs to 
lower-wage Mexico. Conservatively, NAFTA has led 
to nearly 1,000,000 American job losses. Conversely, 
Mexico has become an export platform displacing 
United States production. An unprecedented flood of 
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imports of manufactured and agricultural goods now 
enter the United States. Further, Mexico has experi-
enced an outsourcing of productivity to even lower- 
wage China, as Chinese imports to Mexico have 
grown and are imported into the United States. 
(3) NAFTA SHOULD NOT BE EXPANDED.—The 
Congress approved the NAFTA in order to achieve 
economic, social, and environmental benefits for the 
people of the United States. Based on currently 
available information, the goals and objectives of the 
NAFTA are not being achieved. Therefore, the 
NAFTA should not be expanded to include any 
other country. 
(4) NAFTA TO BE RENEGOTIATED AND BENE-
FITS CERTIFIED.—Based on the experience with the 
NAFTA since its implementation, it has become evi-
dent that further negotiation is required to resolve 
fundamental inadequacies within the NAFTA with 
respect to trade balances, currency differentials, 
health and environmental conditions, agricultural 
provisions, systems of justice, and illegal immigra-
tion. If the NAFTA is to continue, Congress must 
require certification of specific measures of eco-
nomic, social, legal, and environmental progress. 
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