NY Times Story on NAFTA Shows Sherrod Brown was Right

The New York Times, in an article in its The Week in Review section has a story on how NAFTA hasn't really slowed down illegal immigration from Mexico. According to the article, that's because NAFTA sponsors assumed that both governments and markets would act "rationally", ie, the way the sponsors thought they would act. It seems like they haven't and now immigration from Mexico is about 500,000 persons per year, 85% of it illegal. What's more, manufacturing jobs in Mexico have declined, partly because of competition from China. Farmers in Mexico are losing business because of competition from the United States.

When Sherrod Brown was running for the U.S. Senate this past year, a lot of editorial page writers called him a "protectionist" and took issue with his criticism of the NAFTA treaty. Well, guess what, as this article shows he was right to oppose NAFTA and he is right to oppose other trade treaties. This article makes clear that neither the US Government nor the Mexican Government did what they should have done with regard to infrastructure development before implementing NAFTA. Neither anticipated what would happen to Mexican jobs because of trade with China and neither planned for Mexican farmers losing income from American competition. In short, Washington needs politicians like Sherrod Brown who approach so-called "fair trade" agreements with skepticism.
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