On Wednesday March 5, civil society and fair trade groups, as well as progressive legislators from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, gathered in Washington, D.C. to talk about NAFTA's real impacts on agriculture, labour, development and migration. They also explored NAFTA's evolution through the Security and Prosperity Partnership and what can be done in the coming year to develop a strong tri-national movement for a more fair, just and equitable trading model on the continent.

"The results of NAFTA were not accidental," said Jeff Faux of the Economic Policy Institute early on in the conference. "In Mexico it was about getting people off the land, into the city, to become labourers in new factories. It's no surprise it actually happened."

Faux said that NAFTA was a deal among elites, a class issue from the beginning, and fighting it will require some kind of cross-border consensus on what is wrong with the agreement and how it should be changed.

While the bulk of the conference focused on NAFTA's impact on farmers and the link between U.S. trade policies and migration, there was recognition from most presenters that the SPP represents a dangerous next phase in the NAFTA saga -- one that not only privileges big business interests but locks them in through institutions like the North American Competitiveness Council, essentially privatizing public policy.

The Council of Canadians was at the conference, which included presentations from NDP Trade Critic Peter Julian, John Foster of Common Frontiers Canada, Karen Pederson at the National Farmers Union, and Pierre Yves Seguinet from the Quebec Network Against Continental Integration (RQIC).

"NAFTA *is* being renegotiated," said Seguinet during his afternoon presentation, referring to the ongoing U.S. debate about the real impacts free trade has had. "CEOs are renegotiating it in secret with government technocrats. This is what we wanted to avoid."

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the democratic contenders for the U.S. presidency, have stated publicly that NAFTA isn't working for America and that unless it can be renegotiated to incorporate labour and environmental concerns, then the agreement should be scrapped. While most commentators pass it off as election rhetoric, the high-profile U.S. debate has spilled into Canada. And with the current groundswell of protest against NAFTA in Mexico, a political opportunity for a renewed continental debate on trade is emerging.

"How do you make a straight jacket more comfortable," asked Oscar Chacon of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities at the end of the one-day conference, wondering whether abrogation is the only real way to ensure a new trading model for North America. Perhaps Faux had the best answer.

"When we say renegotiate, it must be with people on our own side," he said, adding that civil society, farmers and labour groups should consider creating a coalition that can participate in the dialogue and design proposals that increase solidarity across borders -- a kind of peoples vision for North America.

About 100 people attended the conference, which took place on the second floor of the the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, directly above an event on the future of CUBA organized by the very pro-NAFTA, pro-SPP Council of the Americas.

Conference organizers included the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Washington Office on Latin America, the Heinrich Boll Foundation, Global Exchange, the Alliance for Responsible Trade, the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and the Institute for Policy Studies.

Following the conference legislators from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico agreed to launch a Task Force on Renegotiating NAFTA, to be chaired by Mr. Julian, U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the Honourable Yeidckol Polevnsky (Senator for Mexico State and Vice-president of the Mexican Senate), and the Honourable Victor Quintana (Deputy of the State of Chihuahua, Mexico).

"The objectives of the Task Force include transforming and rebuilding NAFTA in order to achieve a fair trade policy," said an NDP press release. "This fair trade model is designed to safeguard the sovereignty of the three countries, and includes enforceable measures for the protection of workers and the environment, and allows for all three governments to regulate in the public interest."