| Source:Sidney
Weintraub (Center for Strategic
and International Studies). "In the Debate About NAFTA, Just the Facts
Please," Wall Street Journal, June 20, 1997.
The North American Free Trade
Agreement has passed its third anniversary without the dire consequences
predicted by opponents when passage was debated, trade experts point out.
Proponents say that the fact the U.S. is at virtually full employment belies
the argument that the free trade pact would lead to the loss of hundreds
of thousands of jobs as employers fled to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper
labor there.
Here are some facts for the
NAFTA record:
-
More than 2.5 million jobs have
been created in the U.S. each year since NAFTA went into effect.
-
Many of the new jobs pay very well
since salaries in export industries are generally some 13 percent higher
than those in manufacturing.
-
In the entire period of NAFTA's
existence, only 125,000 workers have been certified by the Department of
Labor as being adversely impacted by the treaty -- about equal to the number
of jobs created in the U.S. every two weeks.
-
NAFTA was not responsible for the
collapse of the Mexican economy in 1995, since the agreement contains nothing
about exchange-rate issues, and that economy grew by more than 5 percent
last year with expansion continuing this year.
Mexico has repaid, with interest,
all of the $20 billion line of credit extended by the U.S. to rescue the
peso. In the new era of free trade, many analysts contend, Mexico is moving
ever closer to a reformed and democratic political system.
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