The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) versus an alternative conceptualisation of sustainable development

Abstract

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an econocentric policy designed to increase North America's competitiveness in the New International Division of Labour. Although NAFTA is primarily a political-economic policy, numerous environmental and socio-cultural aspects of development are necessarily marginalised by its econocentric orientation. This is exacerbated by numerous contradictions of development and the political economy. Many formulations of sustainable development are inadequate because they fail to address these contradictions. This type of approach, better called sustainable growth, has co-opted the discourse of sustainable development. Thus, an alternative conceptualisation of sustainable development that addresses these issues from a holistic perspective will be used. By contrasting NAFTA and the alternative conceptualisation of sustainable development it can be seen that NAFTA does not facilitate, but rather undermines, the implementation of sustainable development. This is because NAFTA plays right into the contradictions of development that are central to this crisis in development.