Recently Canada was informed that any talk of opting out of NAFTA that we’d been hearing in the US media, with American politics, was just political rhetoric, and that Canadians had nothing to worry about.
Worried?
I’m disappointed.
I hate NAFTA in its present form; I was against it right from the start. I even tried to warn anyone that would listen, on what would happen when a country with a high valued dollar, like the US or Canada, set up Free Trade with a country with a low valued dollar, like Mexico.
To me NAFTA was an act of stupidity, there is a right way of doing Free Trade and a wrong way, and NAFTA represents the wrong way.
Instead of setting up a North American Free Trade zone, we should have set up Free Trade zones with countries that had similar dollar values. That way we would have been exporting trade, instead of exporting jobs.
We could have different Free Trade zones based on dollar values.
Therefore, countries with a dollar values like Mexico, would have been one Free Trade zone. Canada, the US, and a few other countries of the like, another zone, and so on.
Trade between Free Trade zones would be based on fair trade policies.
When a poorer Free Trade zone’s dollar value reaches a point where it could be harmonized with another Free Trade zone, then both Free Trade zones can be combined into a large Free Trade zone. The harmonization of dollar values between Free Trade zones would eventually combine into a global Free Trade market.
The richer Free Trade zones would have an opportunity to help the poorer Free Trade zones achieve this harmonization of dollar values as well, with proper fair trade policies.
I believe in globalization. It’s just doing it stupidly that bothers me.
How is it smart, for companies to move their business out of their home countries like the US and Canada in the pursuit of cheap labor, if it erodes the buying power of the consumers they had expected to buy their products?
These companies should be shown the errors of their ways. If it were up to me, I’d hit them in the pocket book so hard, they’d come running home.
Greed can really make you stupid and shortsighted I guess.
If it were up to me, I would change it.
Therefore, it is up to us.
Great insights.I dont believe their actions are stupidity;it appears that way if we dont the real reasons behind them.On the surface free trade,war in Iraq & elsewhere,911,etc all could be said to appear as a series of mistakes.On another topic you mentioned the NEW AMERICAs document/plan.
This is all being purposefully orchestrated.I joined the APEC protest here in Vancouver BC when I heard LIVE on college radio what was happening,people being pepper sprayed in a peaceful protest.I marched side by side with mothers,families,church groups,unions,elderly,young people etc,who were beginning to see how dangerous this free trade movement is.I was so struck when I heard 2 independant voices; one a holocaust survivor,the other had lived through the occupation of el salvador,both said they feared for north america & the world because they saw the same Fascist rhetoric & policies here & they thought they had come to a free country.Keep up the great work.
Comment by Ron Malec — March 3, 2008 @ 10:20 pm |