NAFTA, Creating US Interdependence.
By Nancy Thomson
Without "free trade" agreements, the politicians warned us, the world economy would pass us by. Thus former Congressman Rostenkowski, Majority leader introduced H.R. 3450, November 4, 1993. This was a Bill to implement the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA.) It was to be enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives. Had this bill been called a treaty, which in fact it was, it would have had to be approved by a 2/3rds vote in the senate. It is doubtful NAFTA could have passed this test.
Remember former Congressman Rostenkowski wound up in prison (taxpayers will forever pay his hefty pension) and now he appears on Fox News?
This was only the beginning of the subterfuge. The implementing legislation (445 pages) was voted on, not the 1,700 page NAFTA bill which had to be brought into the chambers on a cart. Of course no representative read the NAFTA bill. This would be impossible we were told. Also, the implementation legislation was still being written when it passed overwhelmingly. Months later I still didn't hear of one congressman who had read the NAFTA bill.
Calls, letters, and faxes from the public were overwhelmingly opposed to signing this trade agreement. Pressure from multinational business and other global interests with their political donations were much more persuasive for passage by this 103rd congress.
NAFTA has more to do with economic integration, political merger and government intervention than it does "free trade." (1) This agreement mandated creation of a North American "Free Trade Commission" and a vast new bureaucracy under this commission called a "Secretariat."(2) Thirty two new international governmental bodies were set up under three departments. Some of these can create subgroups as well as advisory committees whenever they desire. Subgroups include, Environmental councils, US/Mexican Environmental Infrastructure Border Commission, Committee on Trade in Worn Clothing, Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, and Working Group on Rules of Origin.
NAFTA opens the border to the free flow of goods as well as people (3) Appendix 1603 of NAFTA is an end run around immigration. Supposedly it allows 5,500 people to enter as "professionals." However the Commission might decide certain limits are "a barrier to trade" and sanctions could be employed. Every foreign professional category imaginable can come, and take jobs in the US. This includes accountants, engineers, graphic designers, hotel managers, medical/allied professionals, social workers, urban planners, the list contains 68 different professional categories.
Some states act on their own. California has a large number of Mexican immigrants. Doctors and dentists are being imported from Mexico to service this ethnic group. While they receive the same salary as US doctors, the Mexicans don't have the same credentials (5)
Free traders talk about "production sharing." This means moving industry to countries where labor is cheap. We have witnessed the result. Thousands of our manufacturing jobs have gone to Mexico. The US was first in the production of steel, a necessary commodity in time of war. China is now number one in steel production and the US ranks fourth. Products formerly made in the US are now made in foreign countries and shipped back here. Our trade surplus has turned into a $300 billion dollar trade deficit.
Wages have been lowered in America due to the tremendous influx of foreign workers in addition to the importation of cheap as well as slave labor made merchandise. There is little competition between someone earning $20 dollars an hour and someone earning five dollars a day, or not being paid at all.
NAFTA has made things bad all over. The third world while gaining our business is being victimized at the same time. They call it NAFTA-induced suffering. The passage of NAFTA put the border areas in Mexico into high gear. People from the interior all came piling into the industrialized border towns. Matamoros, since NAFTA'S passage has doubled in size overwhelming the infrastructure. The maquiladoras (run by American and other foreign countries) pay a small tax to the Mexican City government but nothing to the locals. Garbage dumps are overflowing and full of rats. There is a shortage of water and the Rio Grande has become polluted. Efforts are being made to have the community go out and pick up trash. On top of it all wages are falling, not improving. Those who followed the NAFTA dream have found "the more factories we get the poorer we get"(6) Free traders will always shift business to the lowest labor cost areas. Thus some of Mexico's industry is now moving to China.
Passage of the Free Trade of the Americas (FTAA) H.R. 1309 is waiting in the wings to be passed by congress. This will bring misery hemisphere-wide.
The ultimate plan is to divide the world along trade lines, the Pacific Rim, European Union, and NAFTA. Europe will be hi-tech, Pacific Rim low wage, some manufacturing, and NAFTA will be a service area. All three areas will be dependent on each other (7)
"Free trade" is really a free ride for international corporations, and a misnomer if ever there was one. There is nothing free about it.
No publicity is made public regarding the details contained in the trade agreements, nor the consequences resulting from them. This is precisely why we must make it our business to buttonhole our representatives and communicate from the rooftops that NAFTA has to go and H.R. 1309 should never get out of committee.
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