Thread: NAFTA wisdom

NAFTA wisdom
Mexico has offered the U.S. an opportunity to hold it to its word on labor, trade and immigration.

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 23, 2008, 8:41PM

The nation's 44th president will be welcomed to the Oval Office by a willing and able partner in Mexico. But that country's leadership will also greet the new commander in chief with a blunt message on trade and, by inference, immigration: Don't mess with NAFTA.

The Mexicans deserve a careful hearing on this; NAFTA merits a less cavalier and more focused approach than generally shown on the presidential campaign trail. Despite the sniping of critics on both the left and right, NAFTA has brought proven benefits across North America.

Renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement on short notice would throw a "monkey wrench" into North America's economic works, Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to Washington, told the Chronicle editorial board on a Houston visit Tuesday. Sarukhan also expressed skepticism that immigration would be solved in the first 100 days of a new U.S. administration but voiced hope that a grand bargain could be retooled as soon as the second year. He called on the two countries to "play chess rather than checkers" and to think strategically on trade and immigration.

So what does strategic thinking look like? It could begin with more straight talk, and Sarukhan supplied some during his Chronicle visit.

The senior diplomat said Mexico's "end game" on immigration is for every Mexican citizen who enters this country to arrive with papers through a designated port of entry. He said his country is "not interested in dumping labor here," and that Mexico's anticipated 7 percent growth rate will require that the country's human capital be carefully husbanded.

These observations about Mexico's policy and intentions — from a Mexican point of view — ought to tamp down some of the alarmist talk in this country on the immigration topic. The Mexicans want an orderly, documented process to control the flow of labor across the border and they believe they'll need human capital for their own purposes in the future. That is a good thing.

Global economic conditions make the time line for this uncertain. If anything, that makes Mexico's firm and welcome positions more noteworthy.

Obviously, U.S. policymakers ought never be compelled to take any country solely at its word. But Mexico's forthright declarations give policymakers the opportunity to hold our southern neighbor to its word on important and incendiary matters of mutual interest.

Mexico's declarations deserve a particular listen from those with big megaphones in this country who are overly busy preaching the gospels of fear and xenophobia. The facts justify neither.

A growing Mexico eventually will need its own labor for its own purposes. NAFTA has helped bring Mexico the prosperity that makes this so. It deserves continued support.

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The senior diplomat said Mexico's "end game" on immigration is for every Mexican citizen who enters this country to arrive with papers through a designated port of entry. He said his country is "not interested in dumping labor here," and that Mexico's anticipated 7 percent growth rate will require that the country's human capital be carefully husbanded.

So who is responsible for the careful husbanding of the anticipated growth of Mexicans? Americans or Mexicans? And what year will this end game end? 2052 or 3056?
Thank you, Bill Clinton, for NAFTA.