经济学人:北美贸易:不公平的比赛(2)

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America refused to fill vacancies¹ on the roster², in effect blocking the dispute's resolution. There have been no state-to-state disputes within NAFTA since. 美国拒绝填补名单上的空缺，实际上是阻止调解纠纷。自那时起，NAFTA协议中再也没有了国家与国家之间的纷争。

Over time, other problems with this template have emerged, including the possibility for defending countries to slow down procedures. 随时间流逝，因这种模式而产生的其他问题也出现了，包括为了保护本国而拖延程序。

A dispute over labour standards between America and Guatemala under a different trade deal, for example, 例如，美国和危地马拉之间在不同贸易协议下就劳工标准产生纠纷，

was delayed temporarily when Guatemala claimed that the two had not agreed on the meaning of choosing the final panellist "by lot", 当危地马拉宣称两国未就“抽签”选择最终组委成员的含义达成一致，

and demanded meetings before a panel could be picked. The concern is that the USMCA does not fix those problems, 并且要求在挑选小组成员前进行会谈时，该纷争就被暂时延期了。让人担忧的是USMCA不能解决那些问题，

and that this was intentional³ on the part of American negotiators. (There were attempts to fix them in the TPP.) 并且USMCA是由美国谈判代表策划的协议。（原本在TPP中修复这些问题的尝试。）

Since NAFTA's enforcement mechanism⁴ broke down, 由于NAFTA的执行机制已瘫痪，

disputes that should fall under it have been taken to the World Trade Organisation⁵ instead. But the Trump⁶ administration is undermining that, too. 那么这些纷争应该转交给世界贸易组处理。但是特朗普政府也在暗中破坏。

Tough rules are painful when wielded⁷ against you, but useful when holding others to account. 当严厉的规则用来制约你时是痛苦的，但当由别人承担责任时却是有效的。

The Trump administration may think it can get the best of both worlds, by retaining its ability to block panels in case Mexico or Canada sue, 在墨西哥或加拿大的诉讼案中，通过保留阻碍事物委员会的能力

and by using the same bullying⁸ tactics as it has with China when it has a problem of its own. 以及当美国本国有问题时，通过使用对付中国的同一种霸凌策略，特朗普政府或许认为这样可以战胜两种局面。

But bypassing the judges attached to the USMCA risks delegitimising American complaints about unfair trade practices. 但是回避隶属USMCA的法官会让美国的不公正交易行为投诉存在失去法律效力的风险。

By threatening a choice between the USMCA and the chaos⁹ of a lapsed¹⁰ NAFTA, 通过威胁国会在USMCA以及已失效的NAFTA之间做选择，

Mr Trump wants to convince critics to ignore their worries that the new deal lacks teeth. 特朗普想要说服批评者忽略他们对新协议缺乏利爪的担忧。

But if he terminates NAFTA he will face legal challenges from the private sector¹¹, 但是如果他终止NAFTA，那么他将面临来自民营企业的挑战，

in particular over his authority to withdraw from a trade deal without the approval of Congress. 尤其是他在未经国会批准退出一项贸易协议的情况下，对他权威的挑战。

Who would win is uncertain. What is clear is that the fight over North American trade is not over. 谁是赢家还不确定。不过有一点很清楚—北美贸易战争还未结束。

 

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