NAFTAed in the Back by Congress

NAFTAed in the Back
by Lloyd Hudson Frye

It all sounded good. Like the European Union, North America would stop charging tariffs on goods shipped inside the northern hemisphere. It sounded fair. Mexico wouldn’t be penalized for growing tomatoes and could sell them in the United States for more money than before. Then with the extra money they could afford to buy US manufactured machinery cheaper, to harvest their tomatoes. That makes for a win-win situation, right? Canadian-American trade, already our biggest trading partner, increases with tariffs out of the way. It would be just one big happy family of trading partners, with everyone getting richer. What’s not to like, on a deal like that.

Ross Perot, a multi-millionaire from years of lobbying in Washington, cried out, “I can hear a giant whooshing sound of American jobs rushing to Mexico.