Sunday signaled the completion of a major milestone: the end of the first round of negotiations to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). Canada, Mexico and the US are set to meet over multiple rounds in the coming months.

Too frequently I have heard the mantra “do no harm” from industry leaders as they encourage Donald Trump’s negotiations. I take a different stand, as I have since Nafta was signed into law 23 years ago. This is an opportunity to do right by workers across the continent. This moment must not be squandered by pandering to transnational special interests. Some of us in Congress, and many workers throughout our heartland, have been waiting for this moment for years.

Canada v Mexico: Trump seeks to divide and conquer in Nafta negotiations Read more

Workers in the midwest cite trade, and Nafta in particular, as a top reason they supported Trump’s candidacy. In my district in northern Ohio this past election, Trump flipped two historically Democratic counties and almost won a third, Lorain, which voted for Hillary Clinton by the smallest of margins. It is no coincidence that his message on ripping up Nafta resonated with workers hardest hit by the export of hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

In his opening salvo, the US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, correctly emphasized that the deal had “failed many, many Americans and needs major improvement”. To fulfill these goals there will need to be major changes, not simple tweaks. America needs a continental compact that lifts workers on all sides of the border, raises wages and balances US trade accounts.

Trade agreements are highly complex documents. Their benefits to investors can be quantified; by contrast, their costs to workers are acute and cruel if not done right. Think of communities in the midwest ravaged by the loss of manufacturing jobs. Ohio alone lost about 35,000 jobs to Mexico. In rural Mexico, nearly a million farm jobs were lost as imports decimated local economies and forced economic migration as people became desperate for opportunity.

Some economists and some of my colleagues suggest deficits are a healthy aspect of trade agreements, citing mighty American buying power as a singular point of success. That is a distorted view. Mammoth deficits are not beneficial when the job loss behind the imbalance creates seismic economic and cultural pressures. The trade deficit can even limit GDP growth as huge trade deficits can create slow growth economies.

Just in June, the US experienced a $43.6bn trade deficit. These deficits mean more money left the wallets of hardworking Americans to feed the greed of rapacious, low-wage seeking transnational interests. Just look at Nafta’s job numbers: between 1997 and 2010, the US bled 682,900 jobs to Mexico.

To help remedy this, Lighthizer should adopt the concept of my bill, the Balancing Trade Act (HR 2766), as a fundamental stance of US trade policy. It requires the administration adjust policy with any nation accumulating a trade deficit of $10bn or more for three consecutive years. Alternatively, Congress should pass and the president should sign this bill as part of our commitment to lowering trade deficits.

There is no doubt that the US economy possesses unparalleled buying power, but trade is about workers, not just goods. Imagine if North America negotiated a deal that lifted the standard of living of workers and local economies by granting increased buying power for US goods?

Nearly three decades ago, we were told Nafta was the epitome of a modern trade agreement. Supporters assured job growth, increased economic flexibility for North American industries and new buyers for American goods. The Nafta trade model simply has not lived up to those promises. Wages in Mexico and the US have stagnated or declined since Nafta, and working conditions have worsened.

This time around, workers in all three countries need truly enforceable provisions that protect their right to organize, work in safe environments and earn livable wages. Enforcement must come with a mechanism for investigation and remediation when violations of wage and working conditions violate the spirit of the agreement.

Nafta is not an ethereal idea about trade policy and goods. It is about people, jobs and how much money goes into the paychecks of workers across the continent.

The US economy and global corporations can surely benefit from international trade agreements, but that is not enough. Our trade negotiators’ top priority must be the US worker and promoting fair rather than just free trade. In doing so, the continent will achieve a compact for democratic development across North America.

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur represents Ohio’s ninth district and is the dean of the Ohio congressional delegation. Kaptur is the longest serving woman in Congress.