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VERMONT T1MF~·
OCTOBER
28,1993-11
Im J
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tricity or running water. I met with anemployee of Zenith who broke down intears as she described how hard it was tokeep her family alive on the $1 an hour she was paid. I heard another womanexpress the view that her miscarriage,and the illnesses ofother workers in her plant, were related to the dangerouschemicals to which they were exposed.In Brownsville, Texas I met with a phy-sician who is deeply concerned about
ByBernard Sanders
birth defects in the area that may belinked to toxic wastes
discharged
by the
A
recent trip to Mexico with fiveother factories inthe border
maquikJdora
area.members of Congress has only con- The essence ofNAFTA is that Ameri-firmed my worst fears about the can workers will be forced to competeeffect the North American Free Trade against desperate and impoverished Agreement (NAFTA) will have on the Mexican workers who earn a minimumstandard of living, and quality oflife, for wageof58cents an hour, and an average both Americans and Mexicans. manufacturing wage of $2.35 cents anIn our country, the working people hour.A!ready,some2000Americancom_ are currently facing their worst economic panies (AT&T, Ford, General Motors,crisis since the Great Depression. Real Zenith, Digital, etc.) hsve thrown morewages have declined by 20 percent since than a half a million American workers1973;the distribution of wealth is more out on the streets as they have headed uneven than at any tirne since the 1920's, south for lowwagelabor. UnderNAFTA,with the richest 1 percent owning more when all trade barriers are removed and wealth than the bottom 90 percent; and American corporations
will
have evenextremely frightening for the future, more security in Mexico, the exodus of most of the new employment being ere- American jobs
will
only accelerate. Ac-ated consists of low wage, part-time and cording to a September, 1992
Wall Street
temporary jobs with minimal benefits.
Journal
poll, 40% of the companies con-In my view, NAFTA will accelerate all of tacted indicated that they were likely tothese negative economic trends, and will shift some production to Mexico.oniybenefit the ruling elites ofthe United The
good
news, therefore, is thatStates, Mexico and Canada. American corporations are huildingsomeIn Mexico, I observed workers em- ofthemosttechnologicallysophisticated ployed at a high-tech General Motors factories in the world, and are hiring ~
DYAIiIAGI ,
radio assembly plant earning $1.80 an huodreds of thousands of people. The
'IIIIISS A
hour, and living in shacks without elec-
Continued on Page 28
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By Emily H. Merrill
F
or ten years, I have run a successful business in Vermont. My company,Turtle Brystie Inc., manufacturesoutdoor accessory products that sellaround the world. The argument made by Ross Perot and others that NAFTAwould cause job losses in the U.S. isshort sighted.To profit from the savings in labor costs would require an initial capitalinvestment most small businesses can-not afford. Presumably, there would beadditional shipping costs for raw goodsand finished products. Therefore it willnot make economic sense for small busi-nesses, who account for most ofthe jobsin the U.S., to move their production.Though labor costs are an importantfactor in the pricing of products, in aglobal competitive market they are notthe only expense. Others include thecosta of complying with excessive gov-ernment regulations and taxes. Part of this tax revenue is used for U.S. foreignaid to countries like Mexico.The Mexican market for U.S. goodshas tripled since 1986 to $41 billion in1992. With NAFTA, that growth cancontinue, despite the fact that Mexico's per-capita income is only 5 percent of ours. NAFTA is an opportunity to helpourneighborwhile benefitting ourselvesand reducing foreign aid requirements.Though mycompany sells around theworld, it was not until the 25 percenttariff on shipments into Canada wasreduced to 10percent that we were ableto access this huge market for our prod-ucts. Welook forward to
truly
free tradewith Canada, as I am sure many other businesses do with Mexico. Unfortu-nately MeXicois not as large a potentialuser of warm accessories for cold weather. NAFTAwill not happen over night.
It
will be 10years before there
is
virtuallyfrestrade. Twoimmediate benefits, how-ever, are that Mexicowillopen its 2,000-mile border and interior zones to U.S.trucks for the first time and that intel-lectual property provisions strengthenMexican and Canadian protection ofU.S.inventions and creative works from ille-
gal
copying.I have to believe that PresidentClinton and the past four presidentshave stood up for the NAFTA agreement because, as Mr. Herbert Stein, former
Continued on Page 28
Continued from Page 11
bad news is that they are n?t building these. plants.
10
Brattleboro, Benmngto.n, Wmd-soror WhiteRiverJunctlOn. Theyare buildingthem inMexlCo,withlowwage labor - and are throw-ingAmerican workers out on thestreets in the procesS.The new factories that are being built in Mexico by Amen-ean companies are high tech,state of the art plants, which are producing some of highest qU.al-ity products in the world ":lthskilledMexican workers.
Mexico,
which exported
1.3
million auto-motive engines last year, nowleads the world in that category.Studies have indicated thatMexi-canmanufacturingworkershavenow reached
80%
of the produc-tivity level of American workers , _ _ WHILE EARNING 15% OFTHE INCOME.
An
extremelyattractiveequationforthousandaofAmerican companies whowantto increase their profits.Wages have declined inMexico, despite the growth of high techjobs, because ofthe lowwage policy established and en-forced by the undemocratic gov-ernment of President CarlosSalinas - the leader of the au-thoritarian PRI Party. The PRIhas been in complete control of the government since 1929,never
having "lost" a national election.
Workers in Mexicotoday are notailowed to organize free tradeunions, state and federal elec-tions are rigged, the media isheavily controlled bythe govern-ment, and dissidents have been jailed. How do you have a "free"trade agreement with a countrythat is not free?Whyisit that virtually ail
rnul-
tinatipnal corporations in
America support NAFTA, and they are putting millions of dol-lars into a campaign to see it
...S an d ers
-
passed? Why is it that the Mexi_ can government, dominated by30 super-rich fanillies, are put-ting an unprecedented
$40
mil-lion into a pro-NAFTA lobbyingeffort? The answer is obvious.
If
NAFTApasses, corporate profitswill soar because it will be even
easier than now for American
companies to nee to Mexico and hire workers there for Starvationwages. NAFTAmustbedefeated. ThegoalofAmerican economic policymust he to raise wages in our country, not lower them. Ameri-
can corporations must reinvest
in America, and not exploit des- perate third world workers. •
Bernie Sanders (Independent)
is Vermont's lone Cogressman.
...M errill
Continued from Page 11
chairman of the President'sCouncil of Economic Advisers
recently wrote,
II
in
addition toserving our economic interests!
liberal trade policy is an applies-tion of American principles, soexpression of American concernfor the wellbeing of others, sod above ail that it makes a contri- bution tothe stability ofthe world
we live in." •
Emily
H.
Merrill
is
founder and chief executive of Turtle Brystie
Inc.,
an
outdoor accessorymanufacturer in Morrisville.