The Pros And Cons Of NAFTA

On January 1st, 1994, a treaty that created the largest free trade area were signed into place by the trilateral of United States, Canada, and Mexico. NAFTA is a promise made by world’s most significant corporations claiming to create many high paying jobs and raise the standard of living in the US, Canada and Mexico. As we approach its 21st birthday, NAFTA now links 450 million people producing trillion dollars’ worth of goods and services each year. However, behind this seemingly good deal, it also created many underlying issues. Beginning with NAFTA giving corporation opportunities to move factories aboard to the lower-cost Mexico. Manufacturing aboard did not only outsourced American jobs, it also caused manufacturers that remained to lower

Moving factories overseas did create some low paying jobs in Mexico, but it also quickly depleted Mexico’s environment. Agriculture companies also gained profit from NAFTA. After the tariff is removed from US-Mexico trade, many US agricultural subsidies exported corn and other grains to Mexico below cost. This quickly drove the rural Mexican farmers out of business, and many farm workers lost their jobs. With no job and income, many workers were forced to immigrate illegally to the United States to find jobs, and many of them end up working on farms again. The farm owners in the US, competing with subsidies in Mexico also have to cut wages and living conditions in order to remain competent. The working and living condition of the farm workers are unbearable, but the migrant workers have no choice. In Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, author Seth Holmes lived and worked on a farm in Skagit Valley, Washington, experiencing the conditions of the workers first-hand. He said, “I often felt sick to my stomach the night before picking, due to stress about picking the minimum weight. As I picked, my knees continually hurt” (Holmes 88). Holmes thinks this is a result of the unfair trade agreement, and changing the policy could improve the conditions. He says, “Policies that shore up inequalities, like NAFTA and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), must be renegotiated and health reform

Fair trade should give protection to governments from exploitation. For example, small farmers can be protected by giving government food sovereignty. An article from the Chicago Democratic Socialist Organization proposed, “The agreement must return to governments the ability to safeguard food sovereignty by protecting family and small-scale subsistence farmers” (Chicago Democratic Socialist). Rewriting the agreement can protect the small farms and retain jobs for farm workers. The article further addressed an issue discussed previously, “Large-scale importation of basic grains into Mexico is a major cause of the economic collapse of rural communities, which forces millions of undocumented migrants to seek work in the USA” (Chicago Democratic Socialist). Therefore, it would solve problems both in the US and Mexico. It will take efforts of the many to renegotiate NAFTA, and many other terms needs to be added. The general direction should focus on protecting the interest of the general public by restricting corporate powers. Fair trade will reduce the problems caused by