The issue with the new NAFTA agreement is that we're trying to avoid U.S. imperialism here in terms of our trade agreements. The issue with the new NAFTA was something that we raised in an article we wrote for The Hill Times about five years ago when we were in the midst of negotiations.
I also spoke with the Foreign Affairs team negotiating the agreement and raised this issue with them. I asked if my hypothesis that the agreement could imperil our ability to amend copyright to fix interoperability issues would be an issue. It was something that wasn't on their radar. The response I got from Foreign Affairs.... They had all the time in the world and they did an excellent job with the negotiations, and my hat goes off to them, but the response I got was that they weren't sure. They couldn't say if it would or if it wouldn't.
In terms of the amendments that others have proposed, I think we get into the error of increasing international regulation of copyright and breaking digital locks. The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement was an acceleration of what had been in the new NAFTA agreement, and the new digital agreement in Asia being put out by Chile, Singapore and others is another step in that direction. The Americans are pushing even harder.
This is an area of American competitive advantage. As such, the Americans are using trade agreements to ensure that they maintain competitive advantage. We're allies with the U.S., but we're also economic competitors. With the Americans, we have to keep one eye on our wallets with things like this.
Going forward, we really need to start paying more attention to this.