Fear, uncertainty, the prospect of change and political expediency frequently breed strange bedfellows. 

After a partisan battle over his budget, President Clinton suddenly received unqualified support of five former presidents, four of whom are Republicans, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, and a Republican majority in both houses of Congress; all urging passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement and its detailed side accords negotiated to protect worker rights and address environmental concerns.

Meanwhile, in one of the nation’s most eccentric alliances in recent memory, ultraconservative Patrick Buchanan finds himself aligned with the liberal House Majority Whip, Dick Gebhardt, and billionaire- turned-populist politician, Ross Perot to wage war on NAFTA.  This high visibility coalition has enlisted support from the unlikely triad of organized labor, southern textile interests who routinely fight union activities, and a wide ranging group of American farmers.

The centerpiece of the anti-treaty forces has entailed preaching a gospel of fear … NAFTA will trigger a stampede of American jobs to Mexico, where lower wages and minimal protections for worker rights and the environment prevail.  They fail to tell audiences productivity south of the border still hovers at roughly 20% of that in America and quality often falls well short of U.S. standards … and downplay the labor and environmental guarantees of the side accords.

Their isolationist mentality is example of political demagogues and social engineers having lost touch with, and faith in the public they profess to defend.  In their zeal to protect “us” from all ills, including those of economic competition, they demonstrate disdain for our free-market system and a shallow knowledge of economic history. 

Most seem to have little, if any confidence in the productivity and ingenuity of American business and the American work force.

Clearly, a few jobs will migrate … but, most won’t!  But, as new jobs and new industries develop in Mexico, wage and economic scales, worker benefits and government regulations will inevitably increase, quickly minimizing any current disparities to levels where there will be few economic incentives to relocate facilities.  Concurrently freer access to the enormous Canadian-Mexican market will become an increasingly viable and lucrative economic opportunity for those American businesses bold enough to accept its challenge.

Meantime, organized labor has seized on NAFTA as a cause they must oppose.  After decades of waning membership (the public sector excepted), their crusade in opposition to a free trade environment has provided them with a political opportunity to reassert itself.  For the more militant union bosses, implied threats to defeat members of  Congress who vote for NAFTA are taken seriously.

 For farmers, the undoing of NAFTA has more pragmatic consequences.  Many agricultural producers fear long-standing subsidies will be eliminated or phased out too quickly.  What they gloss over is taxpayer dollars have kept prices of their products artificially high for decades.  They’re scared stiff they won’t be able to compete without Uncle Sam underwriting their operations.

Many citrus fruit and vegetable farmers contend that if trade barriers fall, competition from Mexican produce growers may become great enough to harm their businesses.  Yet, producers of such commodities as corn, apples, and soybeans see NAFTA as an opportunity to significantly expand their markets. 

In any dynamic, free-market environment, not everyone will survive every change … some will reap enormous profits, others may fail.

Rhetoric aside; NAFTA will eventually remove nearly all tariffs and other roadblocks to the commerce of goods and services between the United States, Canada and Mexico.  In the process, it will provide greater protection for intellectual property rights, a boon to many high-wage, high value-added sectors of our economy such as the computer and telecommunications industries.   Further, it will eliminate many of the existing barriers which have heretofore forced U.S. companies to relocate plants in Mexico in order to gain access to its markets. 

Advocates of projectionist economic policies have not awakened to the reality that the world has changed.  United States businesses must exist and compete in a global economy.  If America retreats into an isolationist shell, other nations will pass us by, with their standards of living continuing to rise while ours stagnate and eventually wane.

Roosevelt, paraphrasing Thoreau, once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  NAFTA, while not a panacea, presents unparalleled economic opportunities for America … but not if we are panicked by the challenges of change.