Valley trades up

Nearly 14 years after its inception, the North American Free Trade Agreement has once again become a major issue.

As seen on these pages, global trade and specifically NAFTA remain high on the list of campaign issues in presidential election years. Democrats courting support from organized labor unions continue to deny the obvious benefits that have come from free trade.

The opening this week of U.S. and Mexican roadways to heavy trucks from each other’s domains offered truckers’ unions, protectionists and others to once again raise their voices against NAFTA. A simple look at the growth of our local economy, which mirrors the growth all along the border, reveals how easing barriers to trade can help the people who most need it.

Those who cite the Brownsville area’s position as the poorest metropolitan area in the nation conveniently don’t mention that this has been the case for a long time. While our unemployment rate of 6.6 percent for the month of July remains higher than the state and national average, it’s a far cry better than the 18.6 percent jobless rate that existed in January 1994, when the trade pact took effect.

NAFTA brought major changes to this area, by bringing major opportunities. Like any major change, it didn’t come without some challenges. Union supporters and protectionists point to the loss of jobs in some areas of the economy, most notably in the Rio Grande Valley’s textile industry, where several major plants closed down and relocated in other countries. Virtually all of those workers found work at other companies, and except for some of the more senior workers at the old plants, many now have better wages and benefits packages.

Job protection is a popular theme during political campaigns, but such protection often does more harm than good, and sometimes flies in the face of common sense. After all, trying to kill free trade agreements in order to spare the minority of workers who would be displaced is like trying to outlaw automobiles in order to keep blacksmiths employed.

Such changes are, to the overall economy, much like the vaccinations we give our children. They certainly don’t like the injections, but we know brief pain is offset by the long-term benefits.

Open markets bring more competition, and more uncertainty, it is true. But they also bring more opportunity for those who are willing to invest the effort to make their own lives better.

Those who seek to break our area’s position of poverty must realize that it can’t be done through government assistance; after all, the only way to keep getting that assistance is to remain poor. The only way to break the bonds of chronic poverty is through open markets, guaranteed by free trade agreements.

The Brownsville Herald