Washington, DC -- Today, the Trump administration announced that John Melle, a nearly 30-year employee at USTR and currently the assistant U.S. trade representative for the Western Hemisphere will lead the U.S. in NAFTA renegotiations. Melle joined the USTR in 1988 -- three years before NAFTA negotiations began -- and has held various positions, including overseeing NAFTA’s implementation. In a 2006 congressional testimony, Melle declared NAFTA a “tremendous success”
In response, Sierra Club Trade Program Director Ben Beachy released the following statement:
“This administration is asking a fox to guard the henhouse by tapping a staunch NAFTA defender to renegotiate the corporate trade deal that he helped oversee. With this announcement, Donald Trump has confirmed that he has no intention of fulfilling his promise to the American people that he would fix NAFTA. Mere tweaks will not suffice for a fundamentally flawed deal that has eroded wages and increased pollution. Workers and communities need a new deal that puts people and planet first, not a redux led by a defender of the corporate status quo.”
###