The US: An Unreliable Ally
HACER (Hispanic American Center for Economic Research) published an article that first appeared at the Economist about how the Democrats’ anti-NAFTA and anti-free trade rhetoric is hurting America’s image in, especially, both Canada and Mexico (but also in other - especially Latin American - countries).
Officials in both countries want more economic integration, not less. Mexican ministers worry that the Democrats’ rhetoric plays into the hands of the unreconstructed segments of their country’s left. Last month these groups organised a protest, attended by tens of thousands of farmers, against NAFTA. Even though commodity prices are at record highs, the farmers worry that the final ending of import tariffs on maize and beans this year will hurt their livelihoods by opening the way to subsidised American imports…
Cyclical slowdowns are one thing. What depresses politicians in both countries is their biggest trading partner’s protectionist mood. A Mexican minister who is a strong supporter of NAFTA and who has been dealing with Washington for the past two decades says that on a recent visit to the United States’ Congress he found an “almost xenophobic” mood of a kind that he had never before encountered.
That chimes with the frustrations of Colombia’s government, which having negotiated a free-trade agreement with the United States has found it blocked by the Democrats in Congress. The message from the Democratic campaign is that “America is an unreliable ally”, says a veteran Latin American diplomat who spent many years working closely with the United States’ government.
It’s interesting to see the party that constantly bashed George W. Bush for doing great damage to America’s image and thus popularity are doing the exact same thing, albeit in a slightly different way. Clinton and Obama are, suddenly, talking the isolationist talk, this while other countries are slowly opening up their borders and learning that being a partner of the US helps themselves as well as the US itself.
The message the Democrats are sending is indeed that the US is an unreliable ally.
Exactly, Michael. The same folks who extol the virtues of "soft power" seem to think little of utterly undermining that soft power by telling the poor and unfortunate of friendly nations: "Forget about you, I’ve got some steel workers to protect!"
"the Democrats’ anti-NAFTA and anti-free trade rhetoric is hurting America’s image in, especially, both Canada and Mexico (but also in other - especially Latin American - countries). "
It;s not suprising to me that the countries that benefit most from NATFA are upset with the rhetoric. I find some of the ideas agains NAFTA quite compelling actually… I think the article is wrong saying this is a democrat thing. I know quite a few Republicans and Independents that are against it as well…
This does not make us an unreliable ally. Everything doesn’t hinge on NAFTA…We as seperate countries work to achieve many of the same goals.
Could NAFTA be the worst agreement ever to sell the american worker down the toilet? How do you compete against a third world country that has no concept environmental regulation or what it is like to replace $22 and hour workers with $2 dollar an hour slave wages. Ok well some of you might say you can live in Mexico on $2 dollars an hour no problem… Go do it!