Wednesday, April 27, 2011

NAFTA: Another reason to scrap it

Our friends over at Economy in Crisis raise a good point: Among the many, many reasons to scrap NAFTA is the possibility that Mexico could be a portal for low-wage countries to circumvent U.S. import duties.

Economy in Crisis refers us to Lanka Business Online, which tells us that Sri Lanka is looking to sell its products to the U.S. and Canada through Mexico. LBO says,
Sri Lanka is seeking to access North American markets under the NAFTA trade deal through partnerships with Mexican businesses, minister of industry and commerce Rishad Bathiudeen said.
"Joint business partnerships between Mexican and Sri Lankan companies will help accessing the difficult North American markets," he was quoted as saying in a statement. ...“The bilateral trade between Sri Lanka and Mexico stands at 63 million US dollars..."This is still a small volume and there is much potential between the two countries to enhance it."
Notes Economic Populist:
By moving production to Mexico, Sri Lankan companies could theoretically avoid paying tariffs and other duties at the border because of NAFTA.
That could allow for an influx of cheap goods that could do America’s economy more harm than good.
And of course they could ship the goods in Mexican trucks!

(By the way, have you commented to the U.S. Department of Transportation on why you think opening the border to dangerous Mexican trucks is an insane idea? If you haven't, go here, click on the orange, "Submit a Comment" button, fill in the blanks and let 'er rip. We understand at least a thousand Teamsters have commented, but there are 1.4 million of us!)