NAFTA/SPP

By most accounts, NAFTA has been a bust. Mexico has not benefited as much as had been hoped and we would be hard pressed to find much good news from Canada (except perhaps that it is easier to move back and forth across the border).

Specifically, the manufacturing peaked in 2000 and has declined sharply since. There are complaints that factories hire large numbers of women, disrupting the culture by taking them from the home and motherhood. Additionally, America is charged with exporting our pollution.

We also hear complaints from Mexico that NAFTA has caused prices to INCREASE for the locals. If Safeway is willing to buy avocados from Pedro at ten cents apiece, the locals will no longer be able to buy them for five.

Pedro might at least try to raise his prices to 15, but there is pressure from the California growers to keep it at ten. And how do California farmers do it? By hiring illegals to pick the crops. So Mexico is in the unenviable position of competing with itself!

Speaking of competition, Mexico has real trouble competing with Asia in the area of manufacturing. They lack the engineering skills and the precision needed to build a world-class product. Asia has overcome the language barrier, political mistrust (remember Communist China?), and high sea cargo costs to become our main source for clothes and toys and electronics…

Now Washington is considering the Security and Prosperity Partnership; sort of a NAFTA on steroids. “Official” Washington info is at: www.spp.gov

Why is it that those guys want to take a failed idea and build on it? It’s like the farmer who was selling hay. He was LOSING two bucks a bale with each sale. His solution? Get a bigger truck!

This SPP is way too liberal for me. It includes open borders, super highways, Mexican semi drivers, and shared social security plans (see this link: http://www.ssa.gov/international/agreements_overview.html). Some see it like a European Union for the West. Personally, I don’t like it. I don’t see the benefits for the United States. And I don’t see our government being able to administer it.