Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 24, 1993 TAG: 9311030384
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NAFTA would increase exports, create 200,000 jobs over the next two years and increase U.S. productivity, which would bring better jobs to America.
``It will defend environmental standards and, with the adjustment assistance and educational training package ... it will help those who might be hurt by increased competition,'' according to a joint statement by former Presidents Bush, Carter and Ford.
NAFTA would accelerate economic growth in Mexico, slowing both legal and illegal immigration to the U.S., according to the Institute for International Economics.
Workers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico will ``enjoy a higher standard of living and a better overall quality of life'' despite ``some transitional problems of adjustment'' and ``some modest reallocation of labor,'' according to an endorsement by Washington and Lee University's economics faculty.
OPPONENTS
Conservative Republicans are objecting to a Clinton administration proposal to raise $2.3 billion in international transportation taxes over five years to replace tariff income lost under NAFTA.
The Clinton plan proposes an increase of $5 a ticket on taxes assessed on international airline and cruise travel, along with higher taxes on U.S. Customsfees collected from trucks and trains that cross the border.
The impact of lost jobs will be costly, both to workers and government. Planned is an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act to cover workers who prove they lost their jobs because a company moved its business to Mexico or that they were displaced because of Mexican imports.
U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said there are 727,000 jobs in the United States that depend on exports to Mexico.
He also estimates another 200,000 jobs will be created in the first two years under NAFTA.
Government and private studies produce varying estimates. But most say 150,000 and 200,000 more jobs will be gained than lost, and the newly created jobs will pay more.
Although the American Farm Bureau Federation's leadership has been a big supporter of NAFTA, not all Farm Bureau members feel the same way.
Marvin Donald Brady of Carroll County, a Farm Bureau member and president of the Southwest Virginia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, is a strong opponent of the trade pact.
The wage he must pay one farm worker is enough to pay 16 farm workers in Mexico for doing the same work, Brady said. It is impossible to compete under those conditions and unlike dairy, grain and other farmers who are subsidized by the government, vegetable growers like himself get no subsidies, Brady said.
Environmentalists say U.S. agencies for years conveniently ignored the problem of Mexican factories just across the border that discharge toxic chemicals into the Rio Grande. Health officials charge that the pollution has contributed to high rates of birth defects and other health problems.
The Clinton administration recently announced an $8 billion environmental cleanup program for the Mexican-U.S. border, to be funded by international lending agencies and the two governments.
Though the NAFTA documents don't create any environmental standards, they call for the creation of a tri-national Commission on Environmental Cooperation to ensure none of the three countries can lower its environmental protection standards to gain a competitive industrial edge.
by CNB