nafta- is there some kind of contract with these foreign countries?

Question

if so, we need petitions to somehow boycott nafta. anyone have any ideas on how to go about this?

Answer 1

In the beginning, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was begun as the Canada - US Free Trade Agreement in 1988. At the time, the process was to lower the barriers for US goods being offered to Canada by reducing tariffs, removing import restrictions (particularly on 'large' items like automobiles and appliances), eliminating duties (on those and 'raw material' type products), and recognizing 'intellectual property rights'.

The immediate impact (i.e within 6 months), was to have approximately 1/3 of US firms with plants or offices in Canada close their doors and centralize their operations in the US. Canada's industrial output declined dramatically as unemployment figures rose significantly. Things got bad enough that Canada was effectively in recession status from 1988 through 1994.

In 1994, the complete NAFTA package (including free trade and increased border mobility) was implemented, adding Mexcio to the existing 2-nation agreement. As an immediate result, the US saw some of the same issues that Canada had fought through 6 years before. However, the degree of 'slippage' was nowhere near as dramatic as the Canadian event.

In actual fact, the unemployment rate in the US is LOWER now (2006-2007) than it was in 1994. The NAFTA provisions for certain articles (like textiles and agricultural produce) actually aim at increasing the Mexican content available to the US populace. At the same time, the restrictions to moving manufactured goods from the US to Mexico have lessened, as they did with the Canadian agreement.

There has been some small movement of industrial concerns (particularly those requiring a low skill, high-quantity labor force) to Mexico; this has dropped off from the initial rush to more realistic levels due to increasing wage parity (compared to standard of living in the various nations).

The primary criticisms of NAFTA are related to the solution of disputes. Even though the NAFTA tribunal's decisions are supposed to be binding on all parties, the US has seen fit for several years to ignore the NAFTA rulings regarding 'antidumping' policies and tariffs with regard to both of their ostensible trade partners. The uproar in Canada and Mexico is such that both countries are considering 'closing' their borders for shipments of raw materials that the US wants/needs - like the oil and natural gas supplies from Canada, and the agricultural produce from Mexico - in retaliation for the US actions.

Mexican agriculture has seen a terrific impact from NAFTA; the selling price for corn, as an example, has dropped by 70 percent from pre-1994 levels. This has effectively destroyed hundreds of thousands of agricultural jobs in Mexico. (This is more-or-less a direct result of the affluent US government's ability to subsidize their own farming communities far in excess of the Mexcian government's ability to do so).

Answer 2

This is another issue that has be demagogued to death.

I will do my best to straighten things out. In poorer countries, one of the main natural resources they have is unemployed people. By manufacturing products in such countries you can produce them with much lower labor costs. The people in those poor countries become employed and that is a win/win. Some people believe that those people are being abused somehow. Their working conditions and wages are not up to the western standards.

If you force our standards on the manufacturers, there will be no factories in these poor countries. The wages and conditions are not as good as ours but remember these countries are far lower on the industrial food chain. They will eventually evolve and catch up. Manufacturers have lower costs, consumers have lower costs and the people in the factories have good paying steady jobs and a higher standard of living. This is an oportunity for them to move into the industrial age.

What is it, exactly, that you are boycotting?

Most of the products they produce cannot be produced for a profit in the west. Would you be willing to pay $50 for a kid's yo-yo? Even if many of these products were made here it would be in mostly automated factories.

NAFTA is a win/win for everyone involved.



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Answer 3

buy only american ....money talks...to those who think the other nafta countries got screwed by nafta...look at all the lost american jobs, and did it raise the standard of living for the rest of the countries involved..??? no...so there you have it...we let jobs go to people who have to work under less favorable conditions than americans, make way less money, and are still flooding america with illegals....and...we lost about 3 million jobs in the process....

Answer 4

I'll assume you are American. And as such, I suggest you research NAFTA a little better. It is the other countries who have been screwed and swindled by the deal...