Monday, July 7, 2008
A Blog for NAFTA
The thrilling rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and three American engineers makes our commitment to NAFTA more important. The potential axis of Colombia, Chile, and Brazil as counterweight to Hugo Chavez's spread of Marxism throughout South America is compelling. Let Bush-McCain stand up for Colombia and freedom.
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hi Mr. Huber, if you have any interest in seeing an elevation in the quality of life in Brazil or Chile, your enthusiasm for NAFTA
appears misguided. Has the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States, and Canada elevated the quality of life for Mexican workers?
Prior to NAFTA, Mexican workers earned one dollar for every six dollars earned by their American counterparts. After 10 years of NAFTA, the earning power of Mexican workers had declined to one dollar in earnings for every eight dollars earned by an American worker. Mexican worker inflation adjusted earnings actually decreased by 21% during that time. Harpers Index-2005-6)
What went wrong? Was the trade agreement designed to benefit all three nations, or was the intent to provide American manufacturers with an exploitable workforce? Regardless of the original goal, the inescapable conclusion is that NAFTA has done little to elevate the quality of life of the Mexican worker.
The dismal performance of NAFTA stands in stark contrast to the European Economic Union. Its policy of taxing the wealthier nations and enriching the poorer ones has been a success to date. Ireland is a striking example of a relatively poor nation that has been transformed into the second-largest producer of computer software in the world. Membership requirements for prospective candidates desiring entrance into the European
Union included human rights guarantees, along with free and fair elections.
The United States, the driving force behind NAFTA, has a long and undistinguished record of economic exploitation and support of murderous dictatorships within Latin America, including Pinochet in Chile, Somoza in Nicaragua, and Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The worldview of American politicians towards Latin America has changed little throughout the last century. Commenting on the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a U.S. Congressman was quoted “America needs a supply of cheap labor”. This attitude is hardly surprising in a nation where its leaders appear to care little about elevating the quality of life of ordinary workers. Indeed, the 2000 United States Census revealed that one half of all American workers earned less then $2100 a month (in many cases, considerably less), with 45 million Americans lacking health insurance and at least one million persons homeless.
The Mexican government can hardly be congratulated for its performance. Despite having an economy with a gross domestic product of more than 1 trillion dollars, a 2001 United Nations Development Report on Latin America revealed that Mexico suffered from an infant mortality rate (31 per 1000 births) that compared unfavorably to some (but not all) Latin American nations. The infant mortality rate per 1000 births was 12.1 in Costa Rica, 20.1 in Venezuela, and 12.1 in Chile. The report further noted that the poverty rate for Mexico was 42.3%, compared to 21.7% for Costa Rica, 21.2% for Venezuela, and 21.2% for Venezuela.
Perhaps Mexico’s greatest contribution to its poor is the government produced
34 page publication on surviving illegal immigration in the United States (CNN: January 2005).
This is not to suggest that nations in the European Union lack problems. However, those nations do not have 45 million persons without medical care, nor do they have one million homeless, as is the case in the United States. Unless the Latin American Nations currently considering ratification of CAFTA secure U.S. and Canadian subsidies and benefits available within the European model, they need only review the Mexican experience to predict their future.
if you can share evidence that effectively challenges the above, I would very much appreciate your sharing it. sincerely, Bill honer
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