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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: JohnM who wrote (20252)3/1/2002 11:25:09 AM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
I've always understood that to be one of the points of opposition to NAFTA. The position is that the folk who are most hurt by it should be protected--not the companies would make out but the workers who do not.

New technologies are similar to expanded trade in that both will hurt some people, but help the overall economy. If we shut them off enough almost everyone is hurt, including many of the "protected" workers. Also losses of jobs are more visible then the newly created ones. A big factory goes under and people can point to all the job losses, but new jobs are often spread out throughout the economy as the resources that went to produce and buy the old uncompetitive product are freed up.

There are, of course, two other objections to NAFTA at least that I know about: (1) include environmental protection clauses; and (2) some way to deal with the sharp differentials in labor costs (rights to organize, etc.).

Both of these would slow growth all around but esp. in the poorer countries. The right to organize is fine but in many ways is more of an internal matter. Other attempts to "deal with" the differentials in labor costs would just price less productive third world workers out of the market and keep their economy from generating the wealth needed to increase their productivity to support a higher wage. Strict environmental controls would have a similar effect, and putting them in a trade treaty rather then as part of a separate agreement only slows down progress on free trade and world wide economic development.

Tim
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