Remembering NAFTA 20 Years Later As Ive written about the ominous threat that the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) pose the United States manufacturing, its timely to turn our attention back to an earlier industry gutting common market agreement on its 20th anniversary. During the anniversary of NAFTA this month, President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico, prime minister Stephen Harper of Canada and US president Barack Obama met in Toluca, Mexico (ironically a heavily industrialized city in Mexico) to agree to relax border restrictions for businesses under a variety of programs in addition to a laundry list of initiatives that further blurs the line between Mexico and the United States and that will push the us away from economic sovereignty. And what has NAFTA purchased us?: ...despite having had a trade surplus with Mexico in 1993 before NAFTA was implemented, by 2011...that surplus morphed into a $103 billion deficit, just 18 years after signing on to NAFTA. Once Canada was tossed into the equation, our total deficit by 2011 was an alarming $185 billion [This, while] illegal immigration...skyrocketed from 3.9 million in 1993, to 23 million in 2010, much of which could be attributed to NAFTA. Against that backdrop consider the current situation where US unemployment is actually near 37%, with 57 million Americans out of work. Now add two NEW trade agreements are in the wings to create common markets with Asia and Europe and you can do the math on your own... To me it doesnt look good as gradually American economic sovereignty and independence is being erased despite the rhetoric and promises of our elected officials. From the article: Despite warnings NAFTA would result in American jobs being outsourced to foreign countries, our leaders show no signs of ending our commitment to this failed agreement. As a result, our manufacturing base is now in a state of massive decline. When it costs more to produce a product here in the United States than it does in Mexico, why would businesses choose to manufacture in the U.S.? ... workers in the U.S. making $18 per hour are forced to compete with workers in Mexico, holding the same exact job, but making under $4 per hour. Manufacturers....save a lot of money by simply crossing the border into Mexico, and then they can ship their product back to the U.S. without issue. [Note: I am not pro-Union, but I am pro American worker. I am pro Americans not being stripped of the the means via employment to feed, clothe, house, educate and raise their children while free from from foreign colonial control (which is what its amounting to) and ownership of the land under their very feet.]
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 17:15:10 +0000
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