A quick look back at NAFTA; how did we do?

Stabilizing trade relations with your bordering neighbors is a smart move indeed. Did NAFTA live up to the objectives set forth? Two decades before we initiated NAFTA, there were issues which needed to be resolved to keep peace and help Mexico move up in the World to her full potential. Today NAFTA, which covers all of North America and Mexico and a few other partners has rules such as 51% of all vehicles are to be built in a NAFTA country. Again the reason why BMW, Mercedes, Honda, Toyota, Nissan all have plants here. Also why American auto makers moved plants just South of the border to save on labor costs and onerous regulations. These from foreign European and Japanese makers thankfully must hire labor from here in the states where they are located, which is good for the workers and employment. But most of modern automobile manufacturing today is built by robotics. And much is also built in Canada and Mexico. In Mexico it costs US companies 50% to send over business equipment as an extra tariff. US companies have huge factories over the borders in Juarez near El Paso and over the borders from Laredo and Brownsville, TX. Besides NAFTA there are huge trade organizations and treaties. NAFTA has been a big devastator of jobs for textiles, shoes, etc. in Monterrey Mexico all those jobs now have moved to China due to the WTO affiliation of those two nations.

Previously in the Southern States were factories for carpets, shoes, clothes, linen, suitcases, furniture, etc., but after NAFTA most of those jobs went to Mexico. Now to China and even today China says they are losing those jobs to other countries with lower wages as China