The Facts About NAFTA

The Facts About NAFTA

The continuing debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has prompted much confusion on the part of the not-so-sharp masses, such as yourself. The editors of Sojourners are deeply concerned that this major issue is being misunderstood by our readers, and they asked me to help.

I am an expert on NAFTA. In fact, NAFTA is my middle name. And even though the kids in junior high used to beat me up because of it ("Hey, Nafta! Nice pocket protector! Hah! Hah! Hah!"), I'm more than qualified to explain the intricacies of this bold new step into modern commerce.

First, we must understand the two fundamental and irrevocable truths about NAFTA:

1. Thousands of Americans will lose their jobs.

2. That's a lie, barn-breath. Thousands of Americans will not lose their jobs.

If you see a basic contradiction between these two truths, then you obviously have been watching M*A*S*H reruns when you should have been reading those really long and boring NAFTA articles in the Sunday paper.

But then, I'm being a little harsh here. After all, you read Sojourners. So that already tells me you're not afraid of complicated political analysis or radical food recipes. Let's continue.

NAFTA (pronounced nåa-pht-æ) is designed to open trade between the United States and Canada and another country...I think it may be Mexico. Under this agreement a three-part process is created that benefits the citizens of each country.

It works like this: First, U.S. chemical firms sell pesticides to Mexico that have been banned in the United States. Mexico sprays these chemicals on fruit crops which are, in turn, sold back to the United States.

Meanwhile, U.S. automakers are paying Canadian workers to produce new cars. These new cars are then shipped into the United States.