NAFTA's Broken Promises: Failure to Create U.S. Jobs

[snoochie]

This is from 1997! I consider Public Citizen reliable. And 7 years ago, even THEY knew we had to get out of it!

link

"2. Congress should pass legislation to apply a do-no-further-harm test to NAFTA. Despite NAFTA entering its fourth year, NAFTA proponents continue to argue that it may be too soon to judge NAFTA's benefits. However, it is certainly timely to make sure that NAFTA is not causing harm. Thus, for instance, the NAFTA Accountability Act, a bill that obtained 109 bipartisan House cosponsors in the 104th Congress, requires certification that conditions are at least as good as before NAFTA went into effect in 1994. The bill requires studies of the areas NAFTA was promised to improve, such as jobs, wages, the border environment, illegal drug flows and more. If NAFTA can be shown to be doing "no further harm," all that passage of the bill would require is reports on NAFTA's real life outcomes. The bill provides authority for renegotiation of NAFTA provisions if and only if NAFTA cannot be shown to at least "break even." If, after a certain number of years, NAFTA cannot be "fixed" to make it at least break even, its implementing legislation would sunset like normal legislation and require reauthorization.


3. If NAFTA is causing harm, we need to replace it with a different agreement.

We need an agreement among the countries of the Americas that promotes the creation of good jobs and fosters labor rights; that facilitates higher wages and safe working conditions; that helps root investment in local communities and promotes stability in our currencies and financial markets; that protects the environment and human health as a priority; that guarantees democratic accountability of decision makers, due process, and human rights; and that supports rural society and small farmers in our hemisphere. To date, NAFTA has had the opposite results as demonstrated by three years of real life NAFTA outcomes."


So, why is it we're still willing to work on it now, all this time later?!

[Maple]

1. NAFTA has been

in effect since 1988, and took you all thru the prosperus nineties.

Your problem with jobs now does not stem from NAFTA, but from insane military spending and an enormous deficit and debt.

[madrchsod]

3. we all knew that this was going to

suck jobs out of the usa then,at least those who watched our jobs go to every country in the world where labor was cheap and of course non union. we all knew this when the american worker was insulted and demeaned when they told us we couldn`t be as good as the japanesse , we all had to work like the japanesse. we all knew this in the late 70`s and it`s been going on ever since.
of course military spending and short and long term debt is going to destroy this country unless we elect someone who will restore the fairness in taxes and figure out how to run our military. but on the course we are on, china will be the super power of this century and we will be just another argentina,if we are not one now...

[snoochie]

4. According to this it was signed in 1994

Government Programs Aid Workers, Firms, and Communities Impacted Adversely by NAFTA

"After the NAFTA agreement was signed in 1994, the ETA created a new specialized program to mitigate the negative impact NAFTA would have on U.S. Labor."


God above... this reminds me that WE taxpayers have been funding the people who were negatively impacted by NAFTA. So we're paying so companies can make bigger profits, the buying power of people's wages can fall in three countries, and we can lose jobs (and the tax base) here at home.

[Darranar]

6. If I throw a leaf into a quickly rushing river...

and a dam is built in the middle of the river, is it the fault of me throwing the leaf into the water that the water stopped flowing?

Just because something good happened after NAFTA was implemented doesn't mean that NAFTA caused that good thing.

[snoochie]

2. Report: NAFTA Largely A Failure for Workers

This one is from 2001. And we're still willing to 'work on it'?!


Notes job loss, lower wages and labour standards in 3 nations
link

``In the last decade, the minimum wage in Mexico lost almost 50 per cent of its purchasing power,'' says the report. ``The decline in real wages and the lack of access to stable, well-paid jobs are critical problems confronting Mexico's workforce.''

"In the Canadian segment of the report, called False Promise, Campbell says workers should be concerned NAFTA is the economic model for hemispheric integration in the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA).

Next week, 34 leaders from the Americas and the Caribbean meet at the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec city to discuss the expanded free-trade agenda.

``Canada has become a noticeably more unequal society in the free-trade era,'' says the study. ``Real incomes declined for the large majority of Canadians in the 1990s (and) increased only for the top fifth. Employment became more insecure and the social safety net frayed.'' "

[snoochie]

5. Bump!

Is this not an important issue to deal with? *sigh*