One of President Obama’s campaign promises was to look into NAFTA, and make appropriate changes. It was ironic that on Obama’s first foreign visit, he went to Canada and had a joint appearance with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. During the visit, Obama highlighted the strong partnership we have with Canada. "I expect that four years from now the U.S.-Canadian relationship will be even stronger than it is today," Mr. Obama said. "I love this country and think that we could not have a better friend and ally, and so I'm going to do everything that I can to make sure that our relationship is strengthened." And when talking about strengthening labor and environmental standards in NAFTA, he said that there was a way of accomplishing that that was "not disruptive to the extraordinarily important trade relationships that exist between the United States and Canada."
So, if he runs on an Anti-NAFTA program, yet pledges continued, open trade with Canada, what part of NAFTA does he not like? Obviously the answer lies with Mexico.
According to NAFTA, the US had an agreement to grant Mexican trucks full access to its highways by January 2000, but some US legislators delayed that until 2007. The US ended that program last week, banning Mexican trucks access to US highways. So what did the Mexican’s do? They retaliated they only way they could: by instituting new tariffs that will affect about $2.4 billion in annual trade and 89 products, ranging from fruit to washing machines.
According to www.census.gov, Canada is our leading trade partner, followed by China, and Mexico ranks a close third. Why in times of economic distress would we allow our government to come up with protectionist policies and begin a new form of trade war? In our opinion, the moves made by the US were not in our country’s, or Mexico’s, best interests, and will serve to do nothing but to prolong the economic downturn.
The big question that should be on everyone’s mind is, "Which country is next?"
