COMMENTARY
NAFTA agreement ‘free trade’ myth vs. reality
By Edmund G Brown Jr
nder the banner of free trade and corporate nrstmc
turing. American employers have shifted millions
of U.S jobs to lower-wage foreign production sites
The reason is dear equally skilled foreign workers can
do the same job for a lot less
This is the dark truth lurking behind the notion that
the North American Free Trade Agreement will create
high-paying jobs. Much more likely is a slide downward
in terms of wage levels and environmental standards
Such a result is inev itnble if the Uniter! States links itself
with Mexico, where average wage levels are a tenth of
America's, env iromnental laws go unenforced, unions are
i aptive to the state, and the political s\ stem is distorted
by corruption and electoral fraud.
Opening the trade border with Mexico should inspire
open and honest public debate. Instead. NAKFA has been
negotiated in secret and written in arcane language. Mnk
ing things worse is the undemocratic "fast track” pror ess
that will be used for congressional consideration of both
NAKFA and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs
(GATT). Under this restrii tod parliamentary procedure,
the power ol Congress is reduced to a simple "yes or
" no” vote and time allotted for debate is severely limit
ed This makes j rnockerv of Article 1. Set lion H of the
Constitution, which gives Congress the power "to regu
late commerce with foreign nations
What little debate there is on NAKFA is lost in a fog
of outdated ideas. Only a trade spec mlist could take seri
ously such vacuous slogan-words as "free trade and "pro
tectionism" when a third of our "foreign” trade is actu
ally American companies sending exports to Mexico that
are not final goods to he received there, but intermediate
products destined for return to the United States or to oth
er markets after they have been enhanced in value by
cheaper Mexican workers.
The international flow of goods and services has dra
matically expanded in recent years, but in such a perverse
way that the gap between the rich and the poor has dou
bled and the industrial assault on natural systems —
marine Fisheries, tropical forests, topsoil, rivers and the
protective ozone layer — has intensified. In this context,
the slogan "free trade" misses the point. Instead of waste
ful production and frenetic global exchange, we need a
serious commitment to just and sustainable economic,
policies.
One would never guess, listening to those who argue
so dogmatically for free trade, that the concept was only
invented in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when
conditions were totally different. I hen. capital was not
mobile in the way it is today, when billions of dollars can
move across the world in seconds to exploit the bene
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fils of pathetically low wages am! environmental stan
dards Tile very concept of a multi-national c orporation
with no allegiance except to its own glotiat expansion w as
unthinkable. And, of course, no one considered the pos
sibility that human tx'ings might a< tually disrupt the life
supporting processes of nature
Washington insiders — the people who lobby Congress
and pay for the campaigns or the media that reports it
talk as though "free trade" nlwavs raises wages and
generates good jobs The fads indicate otherwise. Sim e
197,1. American trade with other nations has doubled, but
the value of American weekly paychecks has fallen 1H
percent. In the last decade alone, the number of young
men working full time, who only earn a poverty wage,
has increased 100 percent.
The U S. economy expanded — national income per
capita grew 28 percent — but the benefits were channeled
to those with the highest incomes Inequality grew ause
the American economy was deregulated and subjected to
destructive glolwl competition. Executives, investors, cor
porate lawyers and media pundits who were insulated
by foreign competition benefited, but tens of millions of
Others, many of whom had once enjoyed high-paying jobs,
did not. What was lacking — and still is was not
expanding foreign trade, but anti trust, labor and trade
policies that put community well-being at the top of Amer
ica's priorities.
Another danger of both NAKTA and (>A I I has been
exposed by a series of re< cut legal challenges brought
undercurrent GATT rules Both trade agreements use
similar dispute resolution procedures whereby non-ele* I
Opening the trade border with
Mexico should inspire open and
honest public debate. Instead,
NAFTA has been negotiated in
secret and written in arcane
language.
ed spei talists drawn from a short list of trade insid
ers hint1 authority to declare environmental, health
and safety standards non-tariff or tei hnicnl barriers to
trade and therefore suhjet t to fmmu ial san< turn
In August 1 U't t. a three-person ms ret (i,\ I I dispute
panel in (ieneva ruled that the I' S Marine Mammal Pro
lix tion Ai t of to?;' u.i-. an illegal harrier to trade twcause
it restricts importing tuna into the United States that
are i aught using !e< hnnpies that kill large uumhers of dol
phins I he case was brought bv Mexico In I ehruarv lU'i.!.
a GA IT panel ruled that numerous l S states' alcohol
taxes ami regulations were mi onsistent with (.A I I . and
that as ,i matter of international law (. \ 11 was superior
to U S state and lot id law
These i uses i learlv underline the sharp conflit t lietwix'n
international trade agreements and national sovereignty
Ameru an deitltK rai \ rests on a system that ret oglii/ex
signifu ant different es among i arious state and lot ablins
GAT!’mid NAFTA. however, m the name of eliminating
"technii al" harriers of trude resirh t lot al citizens and
communities from setting their own standards I oiler
both NAFTA and GA IT ur will he suhjet ted to a super
government of distant and non-elei ted trade experts,
whose narrow frame of relereni e has noth mg of the robust
diversity of democratu port it ipalion
What is needed in plot e of (<A IT anti NAT I A are trad
ing agreements anti the national policies that from the
beginning emphasize sot nil justice, the enrichment of
lot al t omniunities anti genuine res pet I lor the environ
men! Such agreements and policies would he novel
because they would, in the words of President Hill (din
ton. "Put people first "
l Inder this approach, we would as. not what will help
international companies gel the cheapest foreign work
ers. but what will redut e the growing inequality and
strengthen every Ameru an community.
Edmund C Brow n fr . governor of Cnl/fomiu hum
1975 lo nth.l and a former presidential candidate, is
chairman of the national citizen's group l IV the People
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