Publisher’s Note: It’s about time! In 1993 Ross Perot warned implementing NAFTA would result in a “giant sucking sound,” which would lead to American jobs vanishing across the border. Thanks to NAFTA, our manufacturing base is being sucked from the U.S. Why would anyone want to manufacture in the U.S.? It is fiscally impossible to compete with Mexico’s lax labor and environmental standards.

A bipartisan group of legislators representing a wide array of states, has introduced legislation in the House that would repeal the failed North American Free Trade Agreement.   

The effort, led by Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi, would require providing Canada and Mexico with a six-month notification of America’s intent to drop out of the trade pact.  After that, the U.S. would be free to leave the tri-lateral agreement. 
 
“Timing is everything in life and it’s the right time to pass this legislation. Proponents have had more than enough time to make this work – It didn’t,” Taylor said in a statement.  

Prior to the implementation of NAFTA, the U.S. held a small trade surplus with Mexico of approximately $10 million. By 2007, that surplus had turned into an astounding $91 billion trade deficit. With Canada and Mexico combined, the U.S. has taken a $24 billion trade deficit prior to NAFTA and turned it into a $190 billion deficit – a 691 percent increase. 

Since 1993, manufacturing employment in the U.S. has decreased from 16.8 million to 13.9 million in 2007, as the trade agreement put American workers in direct competition with Mexican workers. In the U.S. the average factory worker earns roughly $18 per hour. His Mexican counterpart, on the other hand, makes just $3 per hour on average. This has encouraged a “race to the bottom” in which American companies are frequently relocating production facilities across the border. Iconic American companies such as Coca Cola, Ford, RCA, General Motors, General Electric and Nokia have all opened up assembly plants in Mexico. In fact, GE employs 30,000 Mexicans in 35 factories in the country.

“At a time when 10 to 12 percent of the American people are unemployed, I think Congress has an obligation to put people back to work,” Taylor said, pointing out that his state has lost 39 percent of its manufacturing jobs since NAFTA was implemented. 

NAFTA is not only troubling economically, but it also harms national security as well, according to Taylor.  He points out a recent mass vehicle purchase by the military.  In this instance, it took nine different contractors to develop the parts and produce the vehicles because of the nation’s lack of manufacturing capabilities.
 
“In some cases, we were dependent on foreign countries,” Taylor says.  “These contractors had to literally re-invent the wheel or purchase the tires from France and Israel.” 

The bill’s cosponsors include Democratic Reps. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, Bart Stupak and Dale Kildee of Michigan, Michael Arcuri of New York, Joe Baca and Bob Filner of California, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Mike Michaud of Maine and Peter Visclosky of Indiana; and Republican Reps. Walter Jones of North Carolina and Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland.

“The lives of average workers in Mexico and in the U.S. have gotten so much worse since NAFTA,” Teamster General President Jim Hoffa said. “When you realize you’ve made a bad deal, you try to get out of it.”

Click Here to Learn More About the North American Free Trade Agreement

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