NAFTA

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) from the perspective of right-wing activist, Pat Buchanan and left-wing activist, Ralph Nader. According to the paper, it is rare for Buchanan and Nader to agree on anything, but NAFTA represents an area where these two traditionally opposite ends of the political and economic spectrum have comparable viewpoints.

From the Paper:

"Both Buchanan and Nader dispute that NAFTA is facilitating comparative advantage for the benefit of all. According to Nader, "Someday the pollyanna belief that the US economy always replaces the jobs it loses overseas with new jobs here, as we keep racing ahead of other countries with modern technology, may run into a contrary riptide that no set of spurious statistics can obscure." Buchanan elaborates with statistics related to manufacturing jobs. He says that under Bush, three million manufacturing jobs have disappeared, one in every six, and that Mexico is taking on our higher value exports. Mexico's leading exports to the United States in 2005 were automobiles, oil, electrical machinery, computers, furniture, textiles and apparel while the United States' leading exports to Mexico were plastics, chemicals, cereals, cotton, meat, paper, oil seed, aluminum, copper and knitted or crocheted fabrics. Nader, on free trade in general, points out the lost of skilled jobs in the United States in the fields of computer programming, payroll processing, airline passenger billings, and insurance computer applications."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Buchanan, Patrick J. "CAFTA: Ideology Vs. National Interests." The American Cause. 27 Jul. 2005. Available: http://www.theamericancause.org/a-pjb-050727-cafta.htm (Accessed 10 Sept. 2006).
• Buchanan, Patrick J. "The Fruits of NAFTA." WorldNetDaily. 10 Mar. 2006. Available: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49201 (Accessed 10 Sept. 2006).
• Buchanan, Patrick J. "The NAFTA Superhighway: Coming Soon." Creators Syndicate. Available: http://buchanan.org/blog/?p=67 (Accessed 10 Sept. 2006).
• "Ralph Nader on Free Trade." On the Issues. Available: http://www.ontheissues.org/2004/Ralph_Nader_Free_Trade.htm (Accessed 10 Sep. 2006).

More papers on NAFTA:

• Analytical Essay # 129850 : "The Effect of NAFTA on US Jobs"
• Research Paper # 89982 : "Effects of NAFTA on Mexico"
• Essay # 83641 : "The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)"
• Essay # 88191 : "NAFTA"

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