NAFTA Gives Mexicans New Reasons to Leave Home

San Francisco Chronicls ^ | 10.15.98 | Robert Collier

[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,

[remember]

It read it in a book entitled "The Way The World Works" by Jude Wanniski about 20 years ago.

The EH.Net Encyclopedia section titled "Did Retaliation Take Place?" makes no mention of any pre-emptive retaliation. Hence, unless you can provide a precise online source that I can check, we'll just have to drop this line of the discussion.

In any case, Smoot-Hawley has little relevance to current discussion about free trade. The reason can be seen in the following graph:

The numbers and sources can be found at http://home.att.net/~rdavis2/tariffs.html. As can be seen, the tariff rate on total imports was between 11 and 15 percent from 1921 through 1929. Smoot-Hawley raised it up to nearly 20 percent. The current tariff rate on total imports is well south of 5 percent now and nobody is suggesting that we raise it to the "good" level that it was at during the twenties, much less the "bad" level of Smoot-Hawley.

[iconoclast]

You seem to think our war with the islamofascists has no merit.

Write on the blackboard 1000 times ... Jihadists, Jihadists, Jihadists ......

Islamofacists? The supporters of this never explained preemptive invasion are as adept at inventing new propaganda words as they are at inventing threats to our security (while ignoring the real threats, I might add).

I was, and am, 100% for pursuing and raining punishment on those who reprehensibly invaded our shores and murdered innocents. Placing our brave forces in the situation of being sitting ducks instead of pursuing the Jihadists will be an imponderable for historians for years to come.

[iconoclast]

John, I agree completely with your economic analysis.

But we're quite a few miles apart on war strategy (think Pakistan).

[Toddsterpatriot]

You said you didn't know anything about the chip industry. I happen to know that our ability to produce chips here in America has been decimated by offshoring.

You have a source that says we have no major chip fabrication plant in full production on American soil or did you pull that fact out of your ass too?

[John Filson]

You're the one who needs to get a clue.

[John Filson]

But we're quite a few miles apart on war strategy (think Pakistan).

Nothing wrong with complaining about tactics and strategy. But the topic here is trade.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Yeah, okay. You seem to be making the point that we don't make any chips in the US. You are wrong. Again. But at least you're consistent.

[John Filson]

I hope you enjoy playing the violin while Rome burns.

[A. Pole]

make any chips in the US

You are right. I ate some a few days ago.

[Sam the Sham]

Globalists are exactly like Stalinists in their willingness to expend human life to bring about their theoretical vision of the perfect world.

[1rudeboy]

Samsung Initiates $75 Million Second-Stage Expansion of Austin [Semiconductor] Plant

[Toddsterpatriot]

Impossible. The only chips we make in America are potato chips. John said so. He also said we need to pay double for our imports otherwise we will lose World War III.

[1rudeboy]

Profile of the U.S. Semiconductor Industry

• U.S. 2003 Sales = $80 Billion
• Worldwide 2003 Sales = $166 Billion
  
• 2003 World Market Share = 48percent of $166 Billion Market
  
• U.S. Jobs = 226,000
  
• Percent of Sales Outside U.S. Market = 73 Percent
  
• Capital Equipment = $10 Billion, 14 Percent of Sales
  
• R&D Investment = $14 Billion, 17 Percent of Sales
  
• More than 30 Percent of Revenues Invested in the Future

Source

[Toddsterpatriot]

Not bad for an industry with no "major chip fabrication plant in full production on American soil". Not bad for an industry considering "that our ability to produce chips here in America has been decimated by offshoring".

Facts are a stubborn thing. But not as stubborn as an ignorant protectionist.

[1rudeboy]

Hey, you Stalinist! Where's your Gulag?

[John Filson]

Samsung Initiates $75 Million Second-Stage Expansion of Austin [Semiconductor] Plant

Not an American company?

[Toddsterpatriot]

Hey, you Stalinist! Where's your Gulag?

I know Stalin killed ten's of millions in his camps. How many have died at the hands of the globalists who are "exactly like Stalinists in their willingness to expend human life to bring about their theoretical vision of the perfect world"? I wonder if these bozos ever say this stuff out loud before they hit the post key?

Would they realize how silly and at the same time obscene their ignorant comments are? Or are they too stupid? Interesting questions.

[1rudeboy]

So what?

[upcountryhorseman]

20% may have been out of work, but: what about the 80% that
had jobs? My Dad started hiis own business, during the Great
Depression.

[John Filson]

That's outstanding. Is he still alive? I hope he's still telling stories about it!