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eyes on the U.S.

A Post-NAFTA Plan B For Trump Era? Mexico Must Get Serious

President Pena Nieto in Mexico City on Nov. 9
President Pena Nieto in Mexico City on Nov. 9
Armando Román Zozaya

-OpEd-

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto recently told a gathering of CEOs at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit that his country sees no need to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States. Instead, it merely should be "modernized" or updated. That, he stated, would mean adding areas not included in the treaty originally, like labor and environmental issues.

Peña Nieto's words are not easy to understand. Firstly, NAFTA already included issues like labor and the environment. In fact, to ensure fair competition and economic growth without significant environmental harm or work exploitation, the signatories — Canada, Mexico and the United States — added the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) to the main NAFTA accord.

Secondly, it is very hard to simply update a trade treaty of NAFTA's scope without effectively renegotiating it, or at least opening the door to its renegotiation.

Thirdly, what does "modernizing" the treaty mean? In keeping with the theory of economic integration, once a free-trade zone is established, what follows is setting up a customs union complemented by a common market, which is then followed by monetary union, then fiscal unification, which means total economic union — and some would say economic union must precede political union.

So, what does President Peña Nieto consider to be viable new proposals for NAFTA? Should it be updated with a customs union, then a North American common market? Does he think the incoming U.S. president, Donald Trump and his hawkish administration will take a positive view of this "modernization," without a more comprehensive renegotiation?

And if this modernization does not involve anything within the theory of integration, what does it mean?

Peña Nieto's declarations seem improvised and impoverished in every sense. At the very moment that our country faces a critical scenario, the president uses a high-profile international gathering to start flippantly toss out senseless phrases. The signal this sends to investors, markets and businessmen everywhere is potentially quite harmful to Mexico's interests.

The Trump presidency is a colossal challenge for Mexico. Optimism and good vibes will not save us from the crisis that could erupt if Trump carries out his electoral promises.The Mexican government really must take what is happening and what could happen very seriously. A good start would be to ensure that in issues of crucial importance to the country, the head of the executive branch should not, under any circumstance, talk for the sake of talking.

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Green

Forest Networks? Revisiting The Science Of Trees And Funghi "Reaching Out"

A compelling story about how forest fungal networks communicate has garnered much public interest. Is any of it true?

Thomas Brail films the roots of a cut tree with his smartphone.

Arborist and conservationist Thomas Brail at a clearcutting near his hometown of Mazamet in the Tarn, France.

Melanie Jones, Jason Hoeksema, & Justine Karst

Over the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, forming massive underground networks that can span entire forests — a so-called wood-wide web. Through this web, the story goes, trees share carbon, water, and other nutrients, and even send chemical warnings of dangers such as insect attacks. The narrative — recounted in books, podcasts, TV series, documentaries, and news articles — has prompted some experts to rethink not only forest management but the relationships between self-interest and altruism in human society.

But is any of it true?

The three of us have studied forest fungi for our whole careers, and even we were surprised by some of the more extraordinary claims surfacing in the media about the wood-wide web. Thinking we had missed something, we thoroughly reviewed 26 field studies, including several of our own, that looked at the role fungal networks play in resource transfer in forests. What we found shows how easily confirmation bias, unchecked claims, and credulous news reporting can, over time, distort research findings beyond recognition. It should serve as a cautionary tale for scientists and journalists alike.

First, let’s be clear: Fungi do grow inside and on tree roots, forming a symbiosis called a mycorrhiza, or fungus-root. Mycorrhizae are essential for the normal growth of trees. Among other things, the fungi can take up from the soil, and transfer to the tree, nutrients that roots could not otherwise access. In return, fungi receive from the roots sugars they need to grow.

As fungal filaments spread out through forest soil, they will often, at least temporarily, physically connect the roots of two neighboring trees. The resulting system of interconnected tree roots is called a common mycorrhizal network, or CMN.

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