[hedgetrimmer]

1.NAFTA was designed to create new opportunities for trade and investment in Mexico and thus complement Mexican development programs. Officials hoped that Mexico would grow much faster than its more industrialized partners and begin to narrow the income gap among the three countries. However, investment has been modest, preventing Mexico from achieving higher levels of growth. Indeed, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimated that, with significant levels of investment, Mexico’s potential growth rate could reach 6 percent. But that requires big changes in current policies. For example, the World Bank estimated in 2000 that $20 billion per year for a decade is needed for essential infrastructure and educational projects in Mexico.

2.Mexico said Friday it will try to persuade President Bush not to sign a bill that would extend a wall along the border in an effort to stop illegal immigrants.

There are an estimated 11 million Mexicans in the United States, about half of whom are illegal. Last year, Mexican migrants sent home more than $20 billion in remittances, providing Mexico with its second biggest source of foreign income after oil.

CAFTA An estimated 12 million Latin American migrants in the United States send more than $40 billion a year to their relatives in their native countries, according to Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) estimates. About $20 billion a year goes to Mexico, $10 billion to Central America and the Dominican Republic, and much of the rest to Colombia, Brazil, Peru and other South American countries.

The massive migration of Latin American men is leaving behind fatherless children, who often grow up raised by grandparents who tend to be too permissive.

As a result, millions of children are growing up on the streets. In countries with high youth unemployment rates, they often end up doing criminal jobs for drug-trafficking or other organized-crime gangs, other experts said. According to the latest World Health Organization figures, Latin America is the most violent region in the world after Africa

All, this is the purpose of "free trade" and one of the dire consequences of it. Multiply these disasters to every country we are trading with under FTAs

[texastoo]

I know that you all probably read more than I do. I'm curious to know if this article was posted in the U.S. It seems strange that this article would be found on the U.S. Embassy in Canada website. In the introduction there is a disclaimer in bold print saying that this is not in any way connected to the U.S. government. Then these meddlers from Mexico and Canada have the audacity to tell Americans what to do and these idiots even think they have the smarts to spend American money. This is even after their admission of the failure of NAFTA. LOL.Of course, there are some American socialists in this also.

To find Senator Cornyn's name in the Acknowledgement was surprising.

http://canada.usembassy.gov/content/can_usa/northamericancommunity_TF_final.pdf#search=%22nafta%20office%20inter-american%20affAIRS%20john%20cornyn%22

[Paul Ross]

What is especially interesting to me in all of the SPP documents... is the liberal euphemismistic term of "stake-holders" being employed to describe the U.S. entities permitted inclusion in the policy implementation process.

The U.S. citizen and taxpayer is evidenty not deemed to be a legitimate "stake-holder."