Friday, November 16, 2007

Vague Memories of NAFTA

So NAFTA is just a vague memory to Senator Clinton...



Our manufacturing base has all but disappeared and the promised information-age jobs are in India. The middle class is slowly vanishing from America. I want Senator Clinton to stop laughing.

There's a report on NAFTA at the Economic Policy Institute:
Revisiting NAFTA - Still not working for North America's workers

It begins by saying:

Despite its name, the primary purpose of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was not to facilitate trade among separate sovereign societies. Rather, it was to promote an integrated continental economy and establish the rules to govern it.

As a former foreign minister of Mexico once remarked, NAFTA was “an agreement for the rich and powerful in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, an agreement effectively excluding ordinary people in all three societies.” It should, therefore, be no surprise that NAFTA rules protect the interests of large corporate investors while undercutting workers’ rights, environmental protections, and democratic accountability. Hence, NAFTA should be seen not as a stand-alone treaty, but as part of a long-term campaign by the conservative business interests in all three countries to rip up their respective domestic social contract.


H/T to Chad (The Left) Shue

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