Wow, mandating a 5X increase in auto wages in Mexico is nuts. As the article points out, productivity and quality just aren’t the same in Mexico and you shouldn’t be paying them anywhere near that much.
The end result may be that some jobs come back to the US which is good. But it will create more poor Mexicans wanting to head north, as if there aren’t enough of them already.
“NAFTA had some rules on the country where products originate, but it had no minimum wage requirement. In contrast, the USMCA (assuming it’s approved by Congress), will require that 40% of a car is made in plants where the workers are paid at least $16 an hour or U.S. tariffs will be imposed on those cars”
So this is another libertarian writer who wants to give our manufacturing jobs to foreigners working for coolie wages. I wonder if she’d give up her own fat salary to a low-paid Third World replacement?
Since 1946, with the Victory In WWII, the USA was the only manufacturing Country in the world, that hadn't been devastated by the presence of war.
Out of both self interest and our good will, we signed 'trade agreements' with countries that had been destroyed. We agreed to self impose tariffs on our US based companies to 'help' the other countries, get back on their feet.
That was over 70 years ago, and we still have lopsided 'trade agreements' with the entire world.
President Trump has realized this imbalance for the past 30+ years and is now trying to put some balance back into the equation. While tariffs stink, they are not as bad as is the current one sided set of agreements that are now controlling our dealings with the rest of the world.
When President Trump axes the rhetorical question of "Who made these bad deals"?
He knows the answer, but the real question is, "Why has no one had the balls to change the rules"? So he said, "I will do it".