Why are we still debating NAFTA?

The Associated Press

Sometimes, Mexicans protest NAFTA.

Featured Topic | Posted 38 weeks 5 days ago

Why are we still debating NAFTA?

Out on the campaign trail, Barack Obama is criticizing Hillary Clinton for supporting the passage of NAFTA during the 1990s. But he says that even though the free-trade agreement has cost American jobs, canceling the treaty now would harm the economy more.

Did Ross Perot's famous "giant sucking sound" drag American jobs south of the border? What are the costs and benefits of free trade?

Ben likes: It's the economy, amigo

The Wall Street Journal

Once a new U.S. President takes office next year, Mr. Calderon would like to start a conversation about "rationalizing and integrating the trade, investment and labor markets of North America" -- the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Good luck to him on that: With a GOP victory comes a campaign promise to seal the border, while it has become Democratic orthodoxy to all but repudiate the North American Free Trade Agreement that was a signal achievement of the Clinton Presidency. NAFTA has produced most of Mexico's new jobs.

Who'd have thought in 1995 that the President of Mexico would some day caution his neighbors not to stray too far from the mutual benefits of open markets? But just now, the Calderon arc is pointing both nations in the right direction. We hope the next U.S. President agrees.

Joel likes: Why populists need to re-think trade

James K. Galbraith/The American Prospect

Did jobs leave the United States to take advantage of cheaper Mexican labor? Of course, some did. Were American workers pressured to cut wages, because of Mexican competition? Of course, some were. But that happened because of Mexico, not because of NAFTA. Mexico would not disappear if NAFTA did. From the standpoint of American workers, NAFTA and its successors are just scapegoats. The fact is, China has since passed Mexico as the prime out-sourcing threat, even though we have no "free trade" agreement with China.

Let's therefore stop scapegoating the Mexicans and the Chinese, and accept that they must have their role, which they will largely determine by their own actions, in the world in which we all live. Let's concentrate, instead, on getting things right for workers right here. Let's raise wages, create jobs, support unions, deliver services -- and especially, let's cut the inequalities in our structure of pay.