The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

Today’s Free Trade Fact of the Day comes from Ohio native and U.S. Chamber of Commerce VP for international affairs Daniel Christman who writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Facts are stubborn things, and so it is with trade in general and the North American Free Trade Agreement in particular. Contrary to what some of the candidates are saying, Ohio is benefiting from trade and from NAFTA in extraordinary ways, and no one more than the state’s manufacturers.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, 55 percent of all Ohio exports go to Canada and Mexico. For the nation as a whole, just 35 percent of exports go to our NAFTA partners. In other words, Ohio depends on exports to Canada and Mexico - markets open to Ohio products thanks to NAFTA - to a far greater degree than other states. Ohio’s exports to Canada and Mexico have more than doubled since 1994, when NAFTA came into force.