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The NAFTA trade agreement is a model for the world. NAFTA has created jobs and lifted lives, in Mexico and Canada and the United States. During NAFTA's first seven years, 15 million jobs were created in the United States. Our trade with Mexico now averages more than $650 million a day. And that's why our border is one of the busiest in the world, and keeping trade and traffic moving freely is essential to America and American jobs.

mostly low paying service sector jobs..I wonder how many WOULD have been created by an America that was an industrial giant

During NAFTA's first seven years, 15 million jobs were created in the United States.

During NAFTA's first seven years,

...the Earth never failed to orbit the sun.

... my heart continued to beat.

..."Friends" and "The Simpsons" are still good for laughs.

...the Major League Home Run record was broken twice.

...a domed team won the Super Bowl.

...a President was Impeached.

Did I miss anything?

Like "cause and effect?"

The Dirty Truth About NAFTA

U.S. trade surplus with Mexico in 1993 (the year before NAFTA): $1.7 billion

U.S. trade deficit with Mexico in 1996 (three years after NAFTA): $16 billion

Estimated number of U.S. jobs lost due to NAFTA as of October 1996: 625,000

Number of U.S. workers certified by the U.S. Department of Labor as having been laid off due to
NAFTA in one narrow NAFTA re-training program: 98,645

Approximate chances a laidoff U.S. worker will not find an equal or higher paying job: 2 to 1

Median annual pay drop of a worker who is hired after being laid off in the early 1990's: $4,420

Number of jobs lost in Mexico in 1995: 1,850,000

Number of Mexican maquiladora workers in July 1996 (thirty months into NAFTA): 761,705

Increase in Mexican maquiladora jobs since NAFTA's passage: 215,117

Number of jobs Allied Signal Chair Lawrence Bossidy predicted in 1993 his company would
relocate to Mexico under NAFTA: 0

Number of Allied Signal workers laid off since NAFTA's passage due to "shift in production to
Mexico," according to the U.S. Department of Labor: 708

Number of U.S. jobs created by Mattel due to NAFTA: 0

Number of U.S. workers Mattel laid off due to NAFTA, according to the U.S. Department of Labor:
520

Year Pendleton Woolen Mills was founded in Portland, Oregon: 1909

Year Pendleton Woolen Mills closed that plant and moved production to Mexico: 1996

Number of U.S. workers laid off by Pendleton Woolen Mills because of NAFTA, according to the U.S.
Department of Labor: 150

Number of workers laid off in a Pocohontas, Arkansas Brown Group shoe manufacturer because of
"increased imports from Canada" due to NAFTA, according to the U.S. Department of Labor: 2,400

Population of Pocohontas, Arkansas: 6,151

Approximate weekly earnings of television production workers in JVC's Elmwood Park, New
Jersey, plant: $360

Approximate weekly earnings of television production workers in JVC's Tijuana plant: $50

Number of U.S. JVC workers in Elmwood Park, New Jersey laid off by JVC's shift in production to
Tijuana: 198

Number of U.S. Zenith employees laid off due to a "shift in production to Mexico," according to the
U.S. Department of Labor: 510

Expected increase in the number of electronics plants in Mexico in the next four years: 400%

Change in buying power of Mexicans since Mexico joined GATT: -70%

Number of children in Mexico living in "extreme poverty", according to UNICEF: 9,000,000

Number of child laborers age 6 to 14 living in Mexico, according to UNICEF: 800,000

Percentage of Americans under the age of 18 who live below the poverty line: 20.8

Rank of the United States among all industrialized nations in the percentage of children living
below the poverty line, according to UNICEF: 1

Number of American children who are hungry or on the very edge of hunger: 14,000,000

Predicted ranking of occupation of cashier, among the top 20 occupations having the largest
numerical increase over the next decade in the US, according to the Department of Labor: 1

Percentage of Mexicans accounting for 70% of all Mexican consumer spending in 1996: 10

Mexico's 1996 global ranking in numbers of billionaires per country, according to Forbes: 5

Estimated number of Mexico's 92 million people who live on less than $5 a day: 40,000,000

Percentage of Mexicans polled in 1995 who said Mexican President Salinas (co-creator of NAFTA)
should be tried for treason: 90

Number of Mexican trucks crossing into Texas each day that carry corrosives, chemicals,
explosives, jet fuel, poisons, toxic waste and pesticides: 1,250

Estimated number of U.S. jobs in motor vehicle related industries lost due to trade with Mexico in
1995: 69,048

Amount invested by Chrysler in facilities in Coahuila, Mexico since 1994 (in U.S. dollars):
$300,000,000

Number of pregnancy tests female workers in Maquiladoras in the Mexican state of Coahuila must
take each year: 12

Percentage increase in Mexican factory workers' wages over the last two years: 50

Inflation rate over that same period: 100%+

Estimated dollar amount to fund essential border cleanup and infrastructure improvement,
according to the Sierra Club in 1993: $20 billion

Sources listed in March 1997 issue of the Multinational Monitor

mostly low paying service sector jobs..I wonder how many WOULD have been created by an America that was an industrial giant

This may sound trite, but a job is a job and somebody has to do it. Economies of scale mean that globalization lifts everyone in the boat, due to the synergies involved. Once we lift the Mexicans high enough, Mexican illegals won't be anymore significant than Canadian illegals.