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OpEdNews Op Eds    H1'ed 5/28/15

U.S. Burned by NAFTA, Yet our Leaders Ask Us To Trust Them Again

By Paola Masman  Posted by Paola Masman (about the submitter)       (Page 1 of 1 pages)   16 comments
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The North American Free Trade Agreement has been nothing but a disaster for the U.S. Just by taking a look at the auto industry, we see how thousands, if not millions, of auto jobs have been shipped down south. Here in the U.S., the lowest paid autoworkers make $38 an hour with benefits. That is roughly four more times than the average auto worker in Mexico. It is no wonder that Mexico is the most attractive place in North America to build auto factories.

In addition, within the past two years, a whopping 8 automakers have opened plants and expansions in Mexico. Those are jobs that could've supported thousands of families here in the U.S. We were told time after time that NAFTA was going to be amazing for America.

In 1993, former president Bill Clinton, a strong supporter of NAFTA told us: "I believe that NAFTA will create 200,000 American jobs in the first 2 years of its effect. I believe that NAFTA will create 1 million jobs in the first 5 years of it's impact."

It wasn't just president Clinton who made those claims. The very conservative Heritage Foundation told us that "virtually all economists agree that NAFTA will produce a net increase of U.S. jobs over the next decade."

Not to mention that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in 1993 that "American firms will not move to Mexico just for lower wages."

NAFTA was supported by every major corporation in America and Wall Street.

Looking at 20 years later, we see that all of these predictions were dead wrong. The Economic Policy Institute estimates a loss of 682,900 jobs to Mexico. That is the complete opposite of Bill Clinton's prediction of the creation of 1 million jobs.

"When you have workers in low wage countries, people who are prepared for 50 cents an hour, a dollar an hour, 2 dollars an hour; it doesn't take a PhD in economics to figure out that corporations will shut down in America, move to those countries, pay workers pennies an hour, not having to worry about environmental regulations, not have to worry about trade unions," said Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). "So what would an American corporation do? Of course they would move to those countries and that is exactly what they have done."

We were fooled with NAFTA in 1994, we were fooled with China in 2001, fooled with CAFTA in 2005, fooled with KORUS in 2012, but we cannot be fooled again with the TPP, TTIP, or TISA. We need to let our elected officials know that we will not fall for multinational's lies again! Contact your Representatives and Senators and let them know that you don't support TPP!

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Paola Casale is a graduate of Otterbein University. She works for The Coalition for a Prosperous America as the Media Director who is in charge of overseeing that hidden news is uncovered. Paola meets with members of Congress in D.C. to discuss (more...)
 

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