Web resources: Check out our Web links to NAFTA-related sites and reports.
December 1st marks 10 years since President Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law. Since then, the deal has eliminated many trade barriers among the United States, Mexico and Canada.
There is no doubt that NAFTA has been successful in increasing trade, but in almost every other aspect -- jobs, the environment, and legal and economic integration -- there has been bitter disagreement. This week, Marketplace, in cooperation with "The Economist," explores the impact of 10 years under NAFTA.
Jobless in Milwaukee Factory workers in the Midwest were some of the first to feel effects from NAFTA. One by one, companies looked to Mexico for cheaper labor and moved, taking thousands of jobs with them. As a safeguard for workers who lost jobs, NAFTA promised to retrain them for the better, higher-paying jobs of the future. But what happened to those workers? Sarah Gardner went to Milwaukee, where blue-collar workers once enjoyed a middle-class lifestyle, to see how the changes played out. Apparently, workers are still waiting for those new, better jobs to appear.
Reporter: Sarah Gardner
Web resources: View a slideshow of images of people Sarah Gardner interviewed and the places described in the story.
Gardner offers detailed commentary, describing the personal situations of the displaced workers in Milwaukee. (These commentaries are also available in the slideshow) Commentary on Audrey Brylow Commentary on Cathy Johnson Commentary on Francisco Lopez Commentary on Michael Rogers
NAFTA and You, the Consumer Robert Reich, the Secretary of Labor 10 years ago when Clinton signed the agreement into law, shows us, in a concrete way, how we have benefited from the trade agreement. He says the consumer is the big winner from NAFTA because reducing tariffs and sourcing parts abroad has lowered prices and created more consumer choice.
Commentary: Robert Reich
Missing Maquiladoras During the 1990s, resentment built up in Americans as the pendulum swung well in the direction of Mexico. The number of jobs in Mexico during the first seven years of NAFTA doubled. Most were in the factories, known as maquiladoras, clustered along the U.S.-Mexican border. But as Marianne McCune reports from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, many of those once-well-off workers are now trying to cope after the pendulum of global trade swung back -- to Asia.
Reporter: Marianne McCune
Web resources: View a slideshow of images of the maquiladora workers Marianne McCune interviewed and the places described in the story.
All the Tees in China In 1992, Ross Perot predicted that America would soon hear "a giant sucking sound" as American manufacturing was drawn down to Mexico. But 10 years later, the sound is that of American and Mexican jobs being sucked away by China and Southeast Asia. Jocelyn Ford explains how NAFTA caused an American golf equipment manufacturer to take his business to Mexico, but how the trade pacts that came in NAFTA's wake have meant the company is on the move again.
Reporter: Jocelyn Ford
Dueling Numbers In a twist on Marketplace’s signature "Numbers" segment, we "do the numbers" on the results of 10 years of NAFTA. So, was NAFTA a good or bad deal? Well, with pro- and anti-NAFTA camps offering different accounting of net job losses and gains, the experts say it’s not that simple. That’s why we challenged Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, and Robert Lawrence, of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, to an on-air numbers duel.
White-Collar Mexico It's no longer just factory work that's moving down to Mexico: Some big U.S. firms like Boeing, GE and Principal Financial Group are outsourcing white-collar computer programming and service jobs to companies south of the border. These jobs are helping create a new middle class in Mexican cities like Monterrey. Sam Eaton explores the new well-heeled middle-class lifestyle of Mexican I.T. workers.
Web resources: View an image of an upscale mall in Monterrey, Mexico, that caters to the area's new tech-industry middle class.
Mad in America This flight of white-collar jobs has begun to alarm some American workers. There's a new group of them who feel threatened by this overseas competition. Amy Scott introduces us to a group of tech workers in Connecticut raising their voices in an effort to prevent more high-skill jobs from moving to places like India, China, and Mexico.
Reporter: Reporter: Amy Scott
Web resources Read Amy Scott's "Reporter's Notebook" about her experiences meeting with the "Mad in the USA" group.
UPS vs Canada NAFTA contains a small provision that did not get much public attention: It's called Chapter 11. The provision lets companies sue foreign governments for damages -- if their laws impede free trade. In the first seven years of NAFTA, foreign corporations collected $1.8 billion from U.S. taxpayers, alone; Canadian taxpayers coughed up $11 billion. From Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Stephen Henn reports that Canadians are now furious that United Parcel Service is suing Canada to get a piece of one its fundamental social services: the mail.
Reporter: Stephen Henn
Web resources: Read Stephen Henn's "Reporter's Notebook" about the bittersweet qualities of Canada's Mabou, Cape Breton, where he traveled to report his story.
Q&A with "The Economist's" Clive Crook The Chapter 11 provision has been a major point of contention for countries cutting trade deals with the U.S. The world has been watching as the benefits and pitfalls of NAFTA have been played out on the global stage. Should these problems serve as warning flags for the growing pain-free trade evolution? Host David Brown talks with Clive Crook, deputy managing editor at "The Economist" magazine in London.
Q+A: Host David Brown talks with Clive Crook
Web resources: Listen to the full interview with "The Economist's" Clive Crook. Host David Brown talks to the magazine's deputy managing editor about whether NAFTA has been a success story.
Q+A with Carlos Salinas de Gortari Host David Brown talks with former Mexican president and NAFTA architect Carlos Salinas de Gortari about first turning down, and then accepting, the free trade agreement. With a new world unfolding, President Salinas changed his mind and set out to convince skeptics at home that NAFTA was worth the risk.
Q+A: Host David Brown talks with Carlos Salinas de Gortari
Web resources: Listen to the full interview with Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Host David Brown talks to the former Mexican president about how he worked to get his country to accept NAFTA.
Former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari talks about turning down and accepting NAFTA
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