Why is NAFTA bad for the US?

Answer 1

Anti-NAFTA members tried unsuccessfully to stop the deal from going through. They feared that the trade agreement, signed by pro-business governments would wipe out years of legislation designed to control the actions of those who put profits ahead of just about everything else -- from workers' rights to the environment.

Many people who felt the same way in Mexico because NAFTA meant the opening up of that country to cheap, mass-produced, and subsidized farm produce from the U.S. -- something poor peasants couldn't compete with.

The World Bank has predicted that by the year 2025, two-thirds of the

world's population will run short of fresh drinking water. Given such a grim future, it comes as little surprise that Fortune magazine recently defined water as "the oil of the 21st century."

Privatization Can Leave the Poor With No Access to Clean Water

Working families suffer: In the US, more than 765,000 jobs have disappeared as a result of NAFTA. When these laid off workers find new jobs, they earn 23 percent less on average than at their previous employment.

The environment suffers: In the maquiladora zones along the US-Mexico border, the increased pollution and the improper disposal of chemical wastes have dramatically raised rates of hepatitis and birth defects.

The Agreement Is Being Written Without Citizen Input- While citizens are left in the dark, corporations are helping to write the rules for the FTAA.

In the Mexican state of Guerrero, 40 percent of the forests have been lost in the last eight years, and massive clear cutting has led to soil erosion and habitat destruction.

The Agreements Will Hurt Family Farmers -NAFTA has been a disaster for small farmers in the US and Mexico. By favoring the interests of agribusiness corporations over the needs of family farmers

Between 1995 and 2000, the prices US farmers receive for corn declined 33 percent, 42 percent for wheat, and 34 percent for soybeans. No wonder that since NAFTA went into effect 33,000 small farmers in the US have gone out of business

At least half a million farmers have left their land.

The Agreement Will Increase Poverty and Inequality

The agreement was written in secret where Us trade officials met in private to discuss it.

The poor cannot afford drugs for medical uses and could die.

Many American labour unions oppose NAFTA because it takes away jobs from American workers as manufacturers relocate in Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labour.

Canada has lost 398, 837 jobs ever since NAFTA began, from 1994 to 2001.

NAFTA has caused huge amounts of toxic waste to be dumped into Countries with weak environment laws, Canada that is. This increases the risks of contaminating the drinking water in Canada. Because of NAFTA, Canada is now importing four times the hazardous waste from the United States

Answer 2

Well, deregulation of the industry was what was bad for US truck drivers. The fears over NAFTA's impact on the industry was that it would allow Mexican carriers to come into the US (previously, they were restricted to running within just a few miles of the border to pick up loads going into Mexico). However, just like with Canadian trucks which have been running into the US for years, the Mexican trucks can only take loads from Mexico into the US (or through the US into Canada), and loads from the US into Mexico (or through the US from Canada enroute to Mexico). They cannot pick up a load originating in the US and deliver it within the US, and, in reality, the chances of it impacting the Mexican trucking industry are just as bad, if not worse.