Good fences, said Robert Frost, make good neighbors. Ten years ago the North American Free Trade Agreement knocked down trade fences both north and south.
Back then the fear in this country was that American manufacturing jobs would disappear in Mexico, and that U.S. wages would drop as American workers were forced to compete with foreign labor. Others promised that NAFTA would integrate North American markets and economic benefits would sweep the continent.
But a decade later NAFTA’s impact remains remarkably difficult to measure. Analysts say that relatively few jobs have been created…and lost. And in some sectors American wages have gone up, and Mexican’s down.
Guests:
John Coatsworth, Director of David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University
Joseph Stiglitz, Economics Professor at Columbia University
and Antonio Madero CEO of the San Luis Corporation