Bangornews.com: Corporate trade and culture wars

Bangornews.com StaffCorporate trade and culture wars

NAFTA's supporters promised that increased trade would lead to more jobs and more rapid economic growth as each nation specialized in what it did best. Trade has increased, but trade's effect on jobs depends on the net of exports over imports. Jobs are not created if U.S. manufacturers send new machines to Mexico and then end up importing even more in finished goods from Mexico. Yet this is exactly what has happened. The Economic Policy Institute reports that every U.S. state has seen a net loss of manufacturing jobs from NAFTA, with Maine's loss pegged at around 2,500 jobs.

For states like California and Arizona, the losses have obviously been even more substantial. These states have confronted a dual whammy. Just as many good jobs are being lost, these states have faced an influx of immigrants, primarily from Mexico. Not only have conditions in manufacturing industries worsened in the United States but also in Mexico. NAFTA enabled the export of subsidized corn to Mexico and led to the displacement of large numbers of Mexican farmers.