A McCain Fantasy

Speaking on June 20 before The Economic Club of Canada, John McCain claimed of the euphemistically-named North American Free Trade Agreement:

Since the agreement was signed, the United States has added 25 million jobs and Canada more than 4 million. Cross-border trade has more than doubled since NAFTA came into force. We have established North America as the world's largest economic market and the integration of our economies has led to greater competitiveness of American and Canadian businesses. Because of our common market, our workers are better able to compete, and to find opportunities of their own in the global economy.

After extensive study, Public Citizen in 1997 reported

If the U.S. trade deficit is plugged into the job creation formulas created by NAFTA advocates, approximately half a million U.S. jobs have been lost under NAFTA. Most of the U.S. jobs lost are high paying jobs in automobiles, trucks and auto parts. The Washington D.C. based think tank found that the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico in these areas has quadrupled since 1993.

And in December, 2003 The Economic Policy Institute concluded that the combined effect of changes in imports and exports as a result of NAFTA was a loss of 879,280 U.S. jobs. (Check out their graph here.) Further, according to the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition in June, 2007, "the U.S. textile and apparel manufacturing sector now has lost 1,001,100 jobs – a 65 percent loss of employment in the industry – since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in January 1994."

Yet McCain- apparently scolding Barack Obama- blustered in his statement "demanding unilateral changes and threatening to abrogate an agreement that has increased trade and prosperity is nothing more than retreating behind protectionist walls." Given that the presumptive Democratic nominee has not demanded unilateral changes but merely said that he wants to renegotiate the NAFTA, Senator McCain is fast establishing himself on trade as a dangerous extremist.