"I'm speaking of the historic free trade agreement negotiated between our country and Canada. And I can also tell you that we're determined to expand this concept, south as well as north. Next month I will be traveling to Mexico, where trade matters will be of foremost concern."
Well I certainly stand corrected rudeboy. I must have missed that last State Of The Union speech, January 1988 I'm guessing.
It appears Reagan indeed initiated a deal to include Mexico ( there was some existing thing with Canada already in effect, I remember this because it was a big deal with the Canadian PM who was a friend of Reagan ). It sure looks like Reagan was whole hog for an expansion with Mexico. Ah well, one more mistake he made.
I did just look it up though, and the actual NAFTA took a long time create and didn't go into effect until 1994 with Clinton. So I would still say *most* of the blame still goes to Bush41 who sheparded this thing along, Reagan for dreaming it up in the first place, and Clinton for piling on extra treaties. Uniparty in action.
The 2nd Reagan term was a disaster on many fronts. I can never forgive him for not pardoning Oliver North, Poindexter and Secord. Nancy Reagan and Howard Baker neutered the man and many of us who watched along cursed those two constantly. Then there was Amnesty. Letting Bork be Borked by Joe Biden and the rest of the (D)ummycrats. So many lost opportunities.
But Perot gets a pass. LOL
A north America trade pact was kicking around for years. It took the fall of Soviet and East European communism to get NAFTA rolling and passed under Clinton. Prime culprits are George Bush, Bill Clinton, Robert Rubin who was Secretary of the Treasury and the Republicans in the Senate and House who voted for NAFTA in greater numbers than did the Democrats.
Ronald Reagan had just a small part in this sellout of US jobs and the US worker
After communisms fall the US no longer had to play chess against a primary adversary USSR and to make sure that certain industries were kept at home for national defense and security reasons. So all the international trade wise guy lawyers and big corporations that could make money from sending manufacturing off shore began to do so. Also include all the hacks in DC who got bribes and campaign contributions for promoting the destruction of US industries.