Abstract

NAFTA at 10: Where Do We Go From Here?

This article discusses the current state of NAFTA ten years after it was implemented and focuses on it's future. Ten years ago, the North American Free Trade Agreement was sold to the people of the United States, Mexico and Canada as a simple treaty eliminating tariffs on goods crossing the three countries' borders. But NAFTA is much more: It is the constitution of an emerging continental economy that recognizes one citizen--the business corporation. The business-backed politicians who pushed the agreement through the three legislatures promised that NAFTA would generate prosperity that would more than compensate "ordinary" people for its lack of social protections. Foreign investors would make Mexico an economic tiger, turning its poor workers into middle-class consumers who would then buy US and Canadian goods, creating more jobs in the high-wage countries. Every day, more intracontinental connections in finance, marketing, production and other business networks are being hard-wired for a consolidated North American market Ford pickup trucks are assembled in Mexico with engines from Ontario and transmissions from Ohio and Michigan Canadian, Mexican and US investors have created a labyrinth of interconnected corporate assets. Indeed, given the influence of the United States in setting the rules for the global economy, a visible, sustained challenge to the NAFTA model here may be the most important contribution progressives on this continent can make to the building of a more just global economic system.