NAFTA and the Persisting Menace over the West.

NAFTA and the Persisting Menace over the West.

By: Erreh Svaia

Caprine Dispersion

“Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.”

George Orwell

To some extremists, it looks like the North American Free Trade Agreement is getting closer to its end, at certain point is a possibility that we all have to accept, agreements also have date of expiry, and we must accept that this could be NAFTA´s one, in an age where we have already witnessed the Brexit and the unbelievable triumph of someone like Donald Trump, we can be sure that nationalism and protectionism are slowly tearing apart our globalized world, Spain is also in a complex situation and just as the world starts to move towards segregation, just as the USSR was torn apart 28 years ago, it seems now that the West world is slowly bean tore apart, Greece looked at first to be the first point of exit, but it remained, it was the United Kingdom where what looked like the separation of the European Union started taking place, the so called Brexit happened and the world of course wasn’t ready, national populist like the UKIP and Nigel Farage were pivotal in creating a movement against the Union, nationalism, protectionism, lies and the “disqualification of the experts” were part of the nightmare that tore apart the UK from the EU, next came the populist menace over the Netherlands and France, but reason triumphed over rage, last year’s Donald Trump won on the elections was another hard blow, allegations of Russian interference was always suspected but never confirmed, today investigations on the matter remain and internet firms like Google, Twitter and Facebook seem to be involved in a campaign to discredit democracy and confuse the common voter “divide and conquer”, and the plan worked, I guess Putin was happy watching how the West world was torn into pieces just like what happened to is beloved USSR, next, it seems to be the turn of NAFTA.

Trump´s allegations against Mexico came just as the start of his presidential campaign “Make America Great Again” could have been the motto of Putin in Russia when he came to power (Make Russia Great Again”, but in this case America, the whole America was being torn apart, Trump denounced Mexicans as “Bad Hombres” (bad men), he claimed ignorantly that Mexico´s government took advantage in the USA stealing jobs and creating an adverse economic situation in the USA, also he denounced Canadian supposed dumping practices on some dairy and wood products, the damage was done, North America as a growing economic entity was slowly starting to become dismantled, Trump knows, but he prefers to ignore it, that in 2008´s global economic crisis, the car industry was severely damaged, it was already in peril thanks to fierce Japanese and South Korean competition during the 90s, and then the rising Chinese manufacturing industry, logistically and cost speaking, the car industry was saved by Mexico´s cheap labor and territorial closeness, otherwise, business like Ford or GM would be completely out of circulation a long time ago.

I´m not superstitious, but today Friday the 13^th was a bad day, USA NAFTA negotiators are starting to impose very hard conditions, a couple of weeks ago, with some exaggerated and out of place demands on the agriculture sector, today it was on the manufacturing sector, especially on the car industry and on the origin content, demanding that at least 50% of the total parts of the American be made in the USA, which cost wise, is simply absurd, and at the moment it not only becomes a menace to the still booming manufacture industry in Mexico, but it is also an unbelievable ignorant menace on American car industry itself, considering that the American car industry were not supportive of Trump´s campaign, it might also be also a bit of Trump´s personal revenge on them.

As neighbors and commercial partners, NAFTA is important to Mexico, yes, it has helped a lot not only in economic issues, but also on political and social ones, politically, the NAFTA created a legal framework that limited the previously unlimited power of politics over economy issues, it created cracks within the so called “dictadura perfecta” or perfect dictatorship as described by Literature Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, it rested PRI´s authoritarian power and helped Mexico on its way towards democracy, socially, it also helped to improve people’s standard of living, thanks to foreign investments and to the introduction of foreign goods, previously only available at high prices on the black markets, it also has given access Mexican goods like avocado and berries, and as stated before, it was a lifeline for the car industry in 2008, unfortunately, NAFTA could possibly end in the weeks to come, we have to face it and start considering it as a possibility, to thing that is not going to happen is to repeat the same mistakes that lead us to Brexit and to Trump´s electoral win, we must be ready, we must be prepared, and it might look like the end of the Western world, but not the end for Canada or Mexico, you can´t turn your back on globalization, you can stop free trade, it has improved global living standards and we must understand that political decisions taken over economic issues will end very, very wrong, we will have to endure the ghost of nationalism coming from the USA at least for another two years, but in the end, I´m sure freedom and democracy will prevail, the state of chaos we are entering will not last forever.