I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4329 
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 
DECEMBER 6, 2007 
Ms. KAPTUR (for herself, Mrs. BOYDA of Kansas, Mr. HUNTER, Mr. HARE, 
Mr. KUCINICH, Mr. MICHAUD, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Ms. SUTTON, and Mr. 
GRIJALVA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee 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’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress makes the following findings: 
(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 will ex-
ceed $135 billion in 2007, and more than $919 bil-
lion since the agreement’s inception. Rather than 
harmonious development and expansion as envi-
sioned and growing trade surpluses for the United 
States, the NAFTA has resulted in United States 
job losses and escalating trade deficits which are 
draining more than $10 billion a month from the 
United States economy. 
(2) LACK
OF
FAIR
AGRICULTURAL
TRADE.— 
United States agriculture is 18 times more efficient 
than that of Mexico. One of the purposes of the 
NAFTA is to reduce distortions to trade. In addi-
tion, the NAFTA is supposed to promote conditions 
of fair competition and to establish mutually-advan-
tageous rules governing trade. However, since the 
NAFTA, there has been a rapid escalation of one- 
way trade of Canadian grain exports of wheat, 
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durum wheat, and barley to the United States, dis-
rupting markets and marketing channels. Surges in 
the importation of certain Mexican fruits and vege-
tables threaten United States domestic production 
and the importation of livestock and meat products 
from the NAFTA Parties has exacerbated the severe 
problems facing United States livestock producers. 
Surges in United States farm exports to Mexico, 
such as yellow corn, white corn, and dried beans 
have contributed to the collapse of Mexico’s ejido 
farm economy, dislodging over 4 million Mexican 
peasants, with no transitional plan for their accom-
modation. These landless peasants now wander the 
continent seeking employment. Human exploitation 
of the landless peasants by criminal elements has 
markedly increased. With the final phaseout on De-
cember 31, 2007, of the tariff on white corn and 
beans, it is estimated an additional one to two mil-
lion Mexican peasants will be uprooted from their 
farmlands, worsening the situation and adding to 
the illegal immigration challenges facing the United 
States. 
(3) JOBS, WAGES, AND LIVING STANDARDS.— 
One of the purposes of the NAFTA is to ‘‘create 
new employment opportunities and improve working 
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conditions and living standards’’ in the respective 
territories of the NAFTA Parties. Instead, there has 
been a substantial loss of over 1 million living-wage 
jobs in the United States and the collapse of Mexi-
co’s small farm and indigenous business sector. A 
survey of United States companies conducted 20 
months after the implementation of the NAFTA 
found that 90 percent of the companies that had an-
ticipated an increased number of jobs from the 
NAFTA have, in fact, not increased employment 
since the NAFTA was implemented. In the first year 
of the NAFTA’s implementation, United States 
workers had the sharpest drop of real hourly wages 
on record. In Mexico, more than 1 million agricul-
tural jobs alone have evaporated since the implemen-
tation of the NAFTA while wages stagnate around 
$4 per day. In addition to the loss of purchasing 
power by workers in both nations, there has been 
erosion in the standards of living in the United 
States, Canada, and Mexico as poverty rates rise 
and real income stagnates. Moreover, usurious re-
mittance practices, whereby Mexican workers in the 
United States transfer money back home further 
trap workers in an unending cycle of exploitation. It 
is estimated these remittances represent nearly $20 
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billion of economic activity for Mexico, the second 
largest source of income after petroleum. However, 
workers lose up to 40 percent of the value of their 
wages in the transfer. 
(4) 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. The NAFTA has contributed, 
conservatively, to a net loss of over 1 million manu-
facturing jobs in the United States during the last 
13 years. Conversely, Mexico has become an export 
platform displacing United States production. An 
unprecedented flood of imports of manufactured and 
agricultural goods now enter the United States. Fur-
ther, Mexico has experienced an outsourcing of pro-
ductivity to even lower-wage China, as Chinese im-
ports to Mexico have grown and are imported into 
the United States. 
(5) DETERIORATING
HEALTH
AND
ENVIRON-
MENT.—Other purposes of the NAFTA are ‘‘to safe-
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guard the public welfare’’ and ‘‘to strengthen the de-
velopment and enforcement of environmental laws 
and regulations’’. Yet, since the implementation of 
the NAFTA, the public welfare has been under-
mined by increased imports of food products that do 
not meet United States health standards and the 
lack of necessary environmental investment along 
Mexico’s northern border and the maquila zones. In 
addition, the NAFTA has accelerated the relocation 
of United States manufacturing facilities to Mexico’s 
border zone, where hundreds of new manufacturing 
plants have been added. Without adequate environ-
mental safeguards, the uncontrolled industrial and 
population growth in the border zone has aggravated 
pollution and health hazards, increasing the inci-
dence of infectious diseases and human exposure to 
toxins. 
(6) RISING ILLEGAL DRUGS AND INADEQUATE 
INSPECTION.—Rather than safeguarding the public 
welfare, the NAFTA has allowed the increased flow 
of illegal drugs and controlled substances into the 
United States from Mexico at accelerated rates. Al-
most all cocaine and marijuana illegally entering the 
United States now comes through Mexico, with an 
increasing portion carried by trucks which undergo 
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more limited inspection under the NAFTA. Fewer 
than 2 percent of all cargo entering the United 
States in inspected. 
(7) WEAK PROTECTION OF LEGAL RIGHTS.— 
The promotion of sustainable development as well as 
the protection and enhancement of basic human 
rights are stated objectives of the NAFTA. As envi-
sioned, the NAFTA is to increase economic oppor-
tunity together with expansion of political freedoms 
and human rights. Yet these objectives are not being 
fulfilled, especially in Mexico, where citizens continue 
to experience greater infringements of such basic 
rights and freedoms. Ordinary citizens frequently 
use the term ‘‘impunity’’ to describe the lack of a 
transparent and just legal system. United States 
businesses complain of corruption and lack of fair 
play in Mexico’s judicial and law enforcement sys-
tems. 
(8) 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 
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NAFTA should not be expanded to include any 
other country. 
(9) 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, illegal immigration, 
and NADBANC operation. If the NAFTA is to con-
tinue, Congress must require certification of specific 
measures of economic, social, legal, and environ-
mental progress. Otherwise Congress has no choice 
but to withdraw its approval of the NAFTA. 
SEC. 3. CONDITIONS FOR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN 
THE NAFTA. 
(a) IN GENERAL.— 
(1) WITHDRAWAL
OF
APPROVAL.—Notwith-
standing any other provision of law, unless each of 
the conditions described in paragraph (2) is met— 
(A) the approval of the NAFTA by the 
Congress provided for in section 101(a) of the 
North American Free Trade Agreement Imple-
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mentation Act shall cease to be effective begin-
ning on October 1, 2009; and 
(B) not later than April 1, 2009, the 
President shall provide written notice of with-
drawal to the Governments of Canada and Mex-
ico in accordance with Article 2205 of the 
NAFTA. 
(2) CONDITIONS FOR CONTINUING PARTICIPA-
TION IN NAFTA.—The conditions described in this 
paragraph are that before December 31, 2008— 
(A) the President— 
(i) renegotiate the terms of the 
NAFTA in accordance with paragraphs 
(1), (2), and (3) of subsection (b); and 
(ii) provide the certification to the 
Congress described in subsection (b)(8); 
(B) the Secretary of Labor provide the cer-
tification described in subsection (b)(4); 
(C) the Secretary of Commerce provide the 
certification described in subsection (b)(5); 
(D) the Secretary of Agriculture and the 
Administrator of the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration provide the certification described in 
subsection (b)(6)(A); 
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(E) the Administrator of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency submit the certifi-
cation and report described in subsection 
(b)(6)(B); and 
(F) the Attorney General of the United 
States provide the certification described in 
subsection (b)(7). 
(b) AREAS
OF
RENEGOTIATION
AND
CERTIFI-
CATION.—The areas of renegotiation and certification de-
scribed in this subsection are as follows: 
(1) RENEGOTIATE
THE
NAFTA
TO
CORRECT 
TRADE DEFICITS.—The President is authorized and 
directed to confer with the Governments of Canada 
and Mexico and to renegotiate the terms of the 
NAFTA to provide for implementation of emergency 
adjustments of tariffs, quotas, and other measures 
to stabilize and balance the flow of trade among the 
NAFTA Parties when the United States has an an-
nual deficit in trade of goods and services with an-
other NAFTA Party that— 
(A) exceeds 10 percent of United States 
exports to that Party; or 
(B) equals or exceeds $500,000,000 for 
three or more consecutive years. 
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(2) RENEGOTIATE
THE
NAFTA
TO
CORRECT 
CURRENCY DISTORTIONS.—The President is author-
ized and directed to confer with the Governments of 
Canada and Mexico and to renegotiate the terms of 
the NAFTA to provide for the implementation of 
emergency adjustments of tariffs, quotas, and other 
measures to mitigate the adverse effects of rapid or 
substantial changes in exchange rates between the 
United States dollar and the currency of another 
NAFTA Party. 
(3) RENEGOTIATE THE NAFTA TO CORRECT AG-
RICULTURAL PROVISIONS.—The President is author-
ized and directed to confer with the Governments of 
Canada and Mexico and to renegotiate the terms of 
the NAFTA to provide for the implementation of 
emergency tariffs, quotas, and other measures to 
bring the levels of wheat, durum wheat, and barley 
imported from Canada to levels that are comparable 
to the levels of these products imported during the 
10-year period before the date the NAFTA entered 
into force with respect to the United States. The 
President is further authorized and directed to re-
negotiate the terms of the NAFTA to establish and 
strengthen provisions to prevent imports of agricul-
tural commodities from any NAFTA Party from un-
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fairly displacing United States production, to pro-
vide improved mechanisms for relief for United 
States producers that are adversely impacted by 
such imports, and to address the serious and grow-
ing problem of Mexico’s displaced ejido peasant 
farmers and crime associated with lawless zones on 
both sides of the United States-Mexico border. 
(4) CERTIFICATION
OF
GAINS
IN
UNITED 
STATES JOBS AND LIVING STANDARDS.—If the Sec-
retary of Labor and the Secretary of Agriculture, 
after consultation with appropriate government 
agencies and citizen organizations, determine that— 
(A) the number of jobs resulting from in-
creased exports of United States goods and 
services to other NAFTA Parties exceeds the 
number of jobs lost because of imports of goods 
and services from other NAFTA Parties since 
January 1, 1994, and 
(B) the purchasing power of wage-earners 
in the United States has increased since Janu-
ary 1, 1994, 
the Secretaries shall so certify to the Congress. 
(5) CERTIFICATION OF INCREASED DOMESTIC 
MANUFACTURING.—If the Secretary of Commerce 
and the Secretary of Agriculture, after consultation 
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with the appropriate government agencies and cit-
izen organizations, determine that the export of 
United States manufactured and agricultural goods 
to the NAFTA Parties exceeds the imports of manu-
factured and agricultural goods from the NAFTA 
Parties, the Secretaries shall so certify to the Con-
gress. In making the determination, the Secretaries 
shall not include any goods originating outside the 
United States that are exported to another NAFTA 
Party, nor imports from another NAFTA Party that 
are destined for other countries. 
(6) CERTIFICATION RELATING TO HEALTH AND 
ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—If the Secretary of Ag-
riculture and the Administrator of the Food 
and Drug Administration, after consultation 
with appropriate government agencies and cit-
izen organizations, determine, with respect to 
imports from NAFTA Parties, that since Janu-
ary 1, 1994, there has been a reduced incidence 
of contaminated and adulterated food, food con-
taining additives or pesticide residues exceeding 
United States standards, or food containing ad-
ditives or pesticide residues which cannot be le-
gally used in the United States, the Secretary 
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