No wonder Europe loves Barack Obama: while Obama is promising unilateral withdrawal from NAFTA unless Mexico agrees to new terms to protect U.S. union jobs, the European Union is working to reduce trade barriers with Mexico. The AP reports: The European Union’s executive commission on Tuesday proposed to upgrade ties with Mexico, recommending the North American nation be made a “strategic partner” for the 27-nation EU. … The plan, which still needs the backing of EU nations and the European Parliament, was also seen to improve European access to Mexico’s …
When the Miami Herald‘s Andres Oppenheimer interviewed Mexican President Felipe Calderon last week, he was surprised to hear Calderon defend NAFTA by stressing how abandoning the treaty would hurt the U.S.: Contrary to Obama’s claim that NAFTA has hurt American workers by moving U.S. jobs to Mexico, Calderón said that the free-trade deal has brought about more investment, and better-quality products and lower prices for consumers both in the United States and Mexico. He immediately addressed the possible consequences of a renegotiation of NAFTA for the United States. … Big …
Great new video from reason.tv out today defending NAFTA by making the argument that the threat to American jobs from trade is no different than the threat from better technology. Host Drew Carey quips:”How are we supposed to compete against something that doesn’t get paid, doesn’t get health insurance, and never goes on breaks? No job is safe from the robot threat!” Reason’s editors add: “Like technology, trade gives us more good stuff than bad—yet Americans are likely to cheer technology and fear trade. No doubt TV talkers and White …
Starting today President Bush is hosting the North American Leaders’ Summit summit in New Orleans with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Meanwhile the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates are campaigning in Pennsylvania, a state where both have made promises they would renegotiate NAFTA to better protect Keystone state workers. Contrary to liberal protectionist rhetoric, not only has NAFTA benefited Pennsylvanians, but unilaterally changing NAFTA’s terms would be an economic and foreign policy disaster. The Washington Post wrote in their feature 5 Myths About NAFTA: 3 …
Today’s Free Trade Fact of the Day comes from Heritage’s own Ambassador Terry Miller who takes a close look at each of the candidates’ views on trade. Before examining some of the candidates’ evolving positions on NAFTA, Amb. Miller lays out some facts comparing the first 13 years under NAFTA with the 13 previous years: During NAFTA, U.S. employment went up from 112.2 million jobs to 137.2 million jobs, an increase of 25 million jobs. We haven’t really heard Ross Perot’s giant sucking sound. The average unemployment rate during NAFTA …
Today’s Free Trade Fact of the Day comes from a Business Week look at how NAFTA has affected the U.S. economy: But the story of GE and Mexico is about more than lost U.S. jobs. Since 2006, GE has struck deals to sell Mexican companies $350 million worth of turbines built in Houston, 100 locomotives made in Erie, Pa., and scores of aircraft engines. GE Capital has amassed $10 billion in real estate, corporate loans, mortgages, and other assets south of the border. This is what a free-trade deal is …
The protectionist promises of the two remaining liberal presidential candidates continue to upset our ally to the north. The Toronto Star‘s David Olive reports that Jim Flaherty, the Canadian finance minister, has come close to “recommending a tutorial for the Democratic presidential aspirants.” Olive continues: By Ottawa’s reckoning, NAFTA accounts for seven million U.S. jobs. … Ohio, for instance, enjoys a $3.3 billion merchandise trade surplus with Canada on more than $33 billion in cross-border trade. But there have been losers, concentrated in the industrial heartland of Canada and the …
Today’s Free Trade Fact of the Day comes from Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw who wrote Sunday in the New York Times: Economists are, overwhelmingly, free traders. A 2006 poll of Ph.D. members of the American Economic Association found that 87.5 percent agreed that “the U.S. should eliminate remaining tariffs and other barriers to trade.” … With the two political parties apparently divided on trade policy, you might expect those free-trade-loving economists to be predominantly Republicans. But that’s not the case. One reason is that economists are not single-issue voters. …
The Economist is just the latest entity to cry foul on the protectionist rhetoric coming out of the most liberal presidential candidates this year. The magazine editorializes: Since it came into force in 1994, NAFTA has benefited all three economies, raising cross-border trade and investment. That applies especially to Mexico. Not by coincidence, since the signing of NAFTA Mexico has become a democracy and achieved economic stability. This has not halted the flow of migrants to the north. But their numbers would almost certainly have been greater without the agreement—or …
Worried by promises from liberal U.S. presidential candidates that they will threaten to unilaterally pull out of NAFTA if certain protectionist changes are not agreed to, Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty made his case to preserve NAFTA in the Financial Times: Canada is the largest trading partner for 36 of 50 US states. Pennsylvania exports more to Canada than its next seven markets combined. Cross-border trade supports 221,500 jobs in Michigan alone. The regional trade relationship is complex, dynamic and, ultimately, good for our shared economy. We are interdependent. What is …
