A Feb. 11 editorial called for Congress to give President Clinton “fast track” to expand NAFTA, starting with Chile.
NAFTA has turned out to be a dismal failure in its last three years. Rather than expanding this costly trade pact, we should talk of replacing it. Consider: Under NAFTA, the $1.7 billion U.S. trade surplus we had with Mexico in 1993 fell to a $16-plus billion annual deficit in 1996. The deficit is now five times more severe than in 1982, the year of the last Mexican economic crisis.
Even if you use formulas created by NAFTA’s boosters, a close look at NAFTA trade flows shows that more than 600,000 U.S. jobs have been lost–most of which were high-paying automotive and electronics jobs. NAFTA is also being used to undercut collective-bargaining efforts and bust unions, as docu-mented in a recent study commissioned by the Labor Department.
A November Bank of Boston poll found almost 60 percent of Americans oppose expanding NAFTA. Polls in Canada show even greater public opposition.
Meanwhile, Mexico is facing its worst economic crisis in 50 years. Despite continual attempts by U.S. and Mexican politicians to declare the crisis over, the suffering grows. Since NAFTA, 17,000 Mexican businesses have failed, including many small retail and manufacturing firms. Mexico’s National Autonomous University reports that the percentage of Mexicans considered “extremely poor” has gone from 31 percent the year before NAFTA to 50 percent in 1996. Considering the damage caused in its first three years, NAFTA is taking us in the wrong direction. When you’re headed in the wrong direction, “fast track” is the last thing you need.
