Posted on 07/03/2005 6:00:20 PM PDT by Coleus
When the North American Free Trade Agreement was being debated in 1993, the rhetoric from both the U.S. and Mexican governments was similarly emphatic.
NAFTA would help deter migration by creating new jobs and prosperity in Mexico, they said.
Several years later, NAFTA appears to have done just the opposite. While many Mexicans appreciate the elevated diplomatic status it has conferred upon their country, the trade pact has driven large numbers of farmers, small-business owners and laborers out of work. These people are left with few options but to seek a better life in the United States.
NAFTA has helped part of the Mexican economy -- large industry, agribusiness and the average consumer -- by accelerating capital investment, boosting trade and lowering prices. Industrial productivity has increased, Internet use is becoming more common and store shelves are packed with the latest consumer goods from all over the world.
However, although the Mexican government does not keep reliable statistics on unemployment, experts say the jobs created by NAFTA are not as numerous as the jobs eliminated.
FARMING WOES In Tlacuitapa, farming has never looked worse, and local farmers blame foreign trade.
As part of NAFTA, corn and dairy tariffs were cut, bringing floods of cheaper U.S. corn. Tlacuitapa farmers, whose two main products are corn and milk, found the prices offered by local distributors slashed to the bone.
The region, where farm machines are few, the land is rocky and rainfall is erratic, simply could not compete with the mechanized, nature-blessed bounty of U.S. agriculture. Those who had the misfortune to live in the Tlacuitapa region -- and in many other regions throughout Mexico -- had no way of making a decent living.
At around the same time that NAFTA took effect, the Mexican government eliminated farm subsidy payments,
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
A blast from the past, eh?
Now we have CAFTA and FTAA to look forward to. Whoopee! < /sarc >
We don't learn from our mistakes, it's "managed" trade nothing "free" about it; the Senate just approved CAFTA now it goes to the house. What ever happened to the Free Market and letting the businessmen worry about trade?
Mechanized, nature-blessed bounty of U.S. agriculture???
Gee, I thought our farm produce cost less because of all those cheap illegal Mexican immigrants.
I mean don't we hear over and over about how the cost of U.S. produce would skyrocket if we had to pay U.S. Citizen farm workers a living wage?
Mexico is full of those hard-working Mexicans, yet their produce costs more than ours. Hmmmm.
Mechanized, nature-blessed bounty of U.S. agriculture???
Gee, I thought our farm produce cost less because of all those cheap illegal Mexican immigrants.
I mean don't we hear over and over about how the cost of U.S. produce would skyrocket if we had to pay U.S. Citizen farm workers a living wage?
Mexico is full of those hard-working Mexicans, yet their produce costs more than ours. Hmmmm.
Freetraders believe that economy is a zero sum game - the less workers are paid the more affluent the upper class will be. The wages are seen by them as a necessary evil to be reduced to minimum.
Also they do not want to wast limited resources on mechanisation if they can get cheap labor.
Tariffs
http://www.americanrevolution.com/AlexanderHamilton.htm - Hamilton advocated tariffs and bounties to stimulate early American economic growth. He could teach you something about encouraging "free markets" to succeed.
A few months back I read that about 10,000 people in Guatemala demonstrated against CAFTA fearing that it would hurt them like NAFTA did to Mexico. Only the big corporations are getting ahead. That seems to be the goal of the globalists. There's going to be two classes of people. The elite wealthy and the poor. They have been destroying the middle class in America for a while now. IF they can get our guns away from us, then they'll be taking more from us to give to the poor. I think that's her highnass Hillary's plan.
[[Several years later, NAFTA appears to have done just the opposite.]]
Just as Ross Perot perdicted. He was right on the money. BTW, who was president at that time? Wasn't it that guy who was getting his bone smoked in the oval office? The one that was impeached, disgraced, and lost his law license for 5 years? What was that liberal democrats' name again?
Are they noticing yet?
Sure they've noticed----they just don't care.
In the not too distant future we will be a nation of emigrants.
God help my grandchildren.
America has never had such a strong economy. Your theories simply don't comport with reality. Some people just have to be unhappy.
Bush #41 signed NAFTA. He was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, dreaming of the New World Order and being dumb enough to talk about it openly.
Uhh, no you have that backwards. Why don't you go on DU where your special brand of illogic will find some buyers?
To where are you emigrating? And once you have emigrated the pronoun "we" won't be applicable to you.
NO, it has done exactly the opposite. Ross Perot said it would lead to jobs going to Mexico. Anyone with half a brain can see this article is saying the opposite.
Really? How is that?
His son Jorge is following his lead...
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