NAFTA contained 900 pages of one-size-fits-all rules to which each nation was required to conform all of its domestic laws – regardless of whether voters and their democratically-elected representatives had previously rejected the very same policies in Congress, state legislatures or city councils.
NAFTA requires limits on the safety and inspection of meat sold in our grocery stores; new patent rules that raised medicine prices; constraints on your local government's ability to zone against sprawl or toxic industries; and elimination of preferences for spending your tax dollars on U.S.-made products or locally-grown food.
It had to be signed by the leaders of three contries and ratified by all three nations.
How is this not a TREATY?
The article quotes the Constitution that ‘agreements’ are mentioned briefly, but that they are less than treaties. My sense from the quotes by Jay and Hamilton are that agreements are informal and treaties are formal, legal, document based for signatory approval by the participants.
So, NAFTA is without doubt in my mind a treaty. But SCOTUS will not enforce the Constitution on this based on a history of Congressional-Executive actions in which the Congress acquiesces and cedes its power to the executive.
So, original intent is set aside for expediency/power.
> “How is this not a TREATY? “
Because is enforced by US Courts, governed by US Law, specifies what is traded and extent of trade, and was originated under tariff provisions of the US Constitution.
Because it was originated under tariff provisions it required origination in the House of Representatives and because of this there was no requirement for 2/3’s approval in the Senate. Therefore, it was never negotiated and processed as a treaty.
Look you’ve been told this several times in this thread and you’re not going to change existing trade agreements to suit your idea that they should be treaties.
The secret Iran deal should have been a treaty and Ted Cruz screamed to high heaven that it should be a treaty. That’s where you need to direct your focus, not NAFTA.