The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

Since Hillary Clinton appears to owe a big part of her victory in Ohio to capitalizing on anti-free trade sentiment in Ohio, we are all but guaranteed to endure another seven weeks on anti-trade rhetoric before the April 22nd Pennsylvania primary. To counteract progressive fearmongering on trade, we offer you today’s NAFTA Myth of the Day courtesy of Heritage’s own Ambassador Terry Miller:

According to reports issued last month by the Department of Commerce, the U.S. economy grew by 50 percent during NAFTA’s first 13 years. Contrary to Perot’s gloomy predictions of job losses, the U.S. economy actually added 25 million jobs during this period. The average unemployment rate since NAFTA has been only 5.1 percent, versus 7.1 percent during the prior period. U.S. manufacturing output rose 63 percent during NAFTA’s first 13 years, compared to only 37 percent in the period before. Compensation for manufacturing workers increased 1.6 percent annually during NAFTA, versus 0.9 percent annually before.