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Don't Trash NAFTA

By Ira Shapiro

Blaming NAFTA—and free trade in general—for job losses is misplaced. As the U.S. continues to debate a 15-year-olf trade agreement, other countries are negotiating their own pacts—a fact that should prod the U.S. to not only strengthen NAFTA but also reinforce its commitment to trade expansion. Read the full article in the Summer 2008 issue of Americas Quarterly.

Fifteen years after its passage by a closely divided Congress, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provides an important lens through which to consider United States trade policy, U.S. politics and some of the effects of globalization. With a new president taking office next year, it is vitally important to draw the right lessons from NAFTA. The United States needs a new trade policy, and it cannot afford to be paralyzed by the continuing debate over NAFTA.

Popular hostility toward the agreement in the U.S. has never been far from the surface. That was evident during this year’s presidential primary season, when the two front-runners for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President, U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both threatened, if elected, to withdraw from NAFTA unless Canada and Mexico agreed to renegotiate. Editorial writers condemned the candidates for political pandering, but a defense of NAFTA in states such as Ohio or Pennsylvania, where the treaty is blamed for job losses, would have been a quick ticket to defeat for either candidate.

NAFTA has left a lasting mark...

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Ira Shapiro served in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as General Counsel and Trade Ambassador during the Clinton Administration. During that time, he helped negotiate the completion of NAFTA and congressional passage of the agreement. He currently practices international trade law in the Washington,DC, office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

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