Reply #10: Are Canada and Mexico devastated? You bring up an important point - [View All]

[bhikkhu]

Both of those countries had significant economic benefits from the agreements.

Mexico still enjoys an unemployment rate of about 5%, and has quietly grown its standard of living and a robust middle class over the last decade or two. Canada is in its usual good shape. You can always find negatives, but basically things have been very good for our trading partners, relative to how things worked out here.

Why we didn't benefit so much, and why people have such an unfavorable perspective on trade agreements, is that our monetary policy favored imports and discouraged exports - it is that simple. A country that maintains a "strong" currency support makes its own products expensive, and other country's products relatively cheap, and free trade then erodes its own manufacturing while bolstering manufacturing for export in other countries...

Currently we don't have a strong dollar policy, and our exports are doing quite well - the US has set historic export records all year.

The trade agreements being discussed would put us more in a position of balanced benefits, and would have several advantages. Before you dismiss trade as harmful, you should look at who it harmed and why...in this case, it should be easy to see that good policies can bring good results, and that the president is pursuing both.