November 17, 1993 POTUS Clinton signed NAFTA (next up Obama's TPP)

[Omaha Steve]

http://nhlabornews.com/2015/11/november-17-1993/

The U.S. House of Representatives approves the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 234 for, 200 against. It passed in the U.S. Senate by 61 for, 38 against. President Bill Clinton signed the agreement into law on December 8, 1993, stating that “NAFTA means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs.” What it actually meant was job losses, decreased wages, and attacks on public interest laws.

About Today In Labor History
The NHLN has joined with multiple other websites to help highlight some of the struggles that workers have faced throughout our history. We want everyone to know what the workers of the past had to endure for the rights we take for granted now. If you do not learn from the past, you are doomed to repeat it.

[zipplewrath]

1. What were the down sides?

I keep seeing arguments about NAFTA not being as bad as it is accused of being. Strangely, you never really see a discussion of what would have happened if we had just taken a pass. Would we really be "worse off" without it? It's hard to see how. Maybe "different", but many of the arguments about NAFTA are that the effects that are blamed on it were due to other reasons. Okay, but without NAFTA, those things would have still happened, so apparently NAFTA didn't exactly "fix" those problems.

I see the same thing with the TPP. The only positive things it seems to do is to encourage other countries to behave more like the western economies. But what's really in it for the average American? I don't really see that argument being made. All I see are things like "it will be worse without it". Or, "China will write the rules". You don't see the supporters out there pointing out all the things we should really like about it.