"Renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement
What he said: “I will make sure that we renegotiate. … I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced.” —Democratic primary debate in Cleveland, Feb. 26, 2008
Why it’s a bad idea: Trade agreements take years to negotiate, and Mexico and Canada would almost certainly seek new concessions of their own in a new round. Obama is right to argue that more economic development in Mexico will lower illegal immigration; he’s wrong to think that bashing NAFTA is the right way to address the Rust Belt’s economic woes. Happily, since the Ohio primary, Obama has backed off his harshest criticisms of the agreement."
I agree with this assessment to a certain point but I feel that NAFTA has not benefited America as much as it has benefitied Mexico and Canada. I am also in favor of the idea that to help control and limit illegal immigration the goal needs to be to help Mexico build its infrastructure and use its boundless mineral resources rather then just continue to have a government that is completly corrupt and unwilling to help themselvs.
Please follow the link and read the rest of the 10 and let me know what you think.
On to Part II and McCain's 10 worst.
2 comments:
I don't think NAFTA was supposed to benefit the US as much as Mexico (I question how much it's helped or hurt Canada). The idea is that a stronger, more stable, and richer trading partner to the south would only benefit the US in the long run. That kind of thing takes time and is not easy at first. Certainly it's harmed the US economy to some degree in the process - but in the end it should be very helpful.
It's like how Amazon.com started out. They lost money for years, I think it was 3 years before they saw profit. The reason they did was because they deliberately undersold everyone, to the point of costing themselves money, to establish a name and build a customer base. For those years, they bled cash, and were in terrible shape on paper. Yet after that time period they became a colossus and are doing very well economically.
Sometimes that's what has to happen to get to where we want to be. Will it work? Its hard to say, but everyone except Ross Perot thought it was a good idea, from Cliinton to Reagan, and that's a pretty good sign of something that is wise.
Couldn't Mexico be helped without allowing our business to take factories overseas and take the jobs they provide with them. I would understand if the result was lower prices on things but it appears to be the only result is more money for the Presidents of these companies. (Nike) Is just one easy example.
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