Why Some People Hate NAFTA

NAFTA also faces opposition from groups altermondialistes, fighting more generally against free trade, which in its present form is limited only to commercial and economic treaties and does, they say, goods and market services to move freely, without giving the same rights to people. The equal rights could not be achieved through political agreements and a joint, not a free market. Thus, the case of Mexico is often put forward as if NAFTA has allowed Mexico to triple its exports, it also increased the economic dependence of Mexico towards the United States: agriculture devastated by the arrival of subsidized American products, more than remesas that direct investment abroad (FDI) between Mexico and the United States, now 70% of Mexican trade is made exclusively with its northern neighbor.

At the national level in the United States, the reformer Ross Perot twice presidential candidate when he won the 1992 score of 18.9% of the vote, has actively fought against it. The Reform Party, which he was the leader, still campaigning for its repeal and especially against the extension.

Some critics to the United States, not backed by economic reality, according to several experts, to have him off the well-paid jobs in this country in Canada and Mexico, for not having done much for American workers to be responsible for the economic stagnation afflicting the American middle class and have caused the rise in wage inequality.

In February 2008, during the campaign for the American presidential election of 2008, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have expressed interest in a stricter enforcement of agreements on working conditions and the environment.

David Emerson (Minister of International Trade) said that the current economic problems of the United States does not come from NAFTA, but the subprime crisis and that “there is no doubt that if the NAFTA reopened, we would have our list of priorities”.

From his side, John McCain, the Republican candidate in the presidential election, said on 26 March 2008 to negotiate a free trade treaty with the European Union.

The draft of a common currency in Canada, USA and Mexico have never been officially approached by the governments of NAFTA and is not one of its objectives, although it has done and is still the subject of informal discussions among the North American capital.

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada has spoken in 2007 and expressed his hope for a better integration of the NAFTA countries including a possible common currency.

This hypothetical single currency (which is tantamount to the United States and Mexico to the situation before 1857 or part of 8 reales Spanish – known piece of 8 or Mexican peso – the equivalent of 1 U.S. dollar and had legal tender) is the target of criticism in Canada and the United States, both nationalist groups left and right, groups of extreme left groups that alter or cartels representing various private interests.

It would however be welcomed by Mexican investors individually and / or contributions to pension funds, putting them in their view immune to the constant devaluation of the Mexican peso, a common currency also would provide greater security in terms of stability and inflation.