Trade Partners Issue Rosy Predictions

Canadian, Mexican and U.S. officials wrapped up three days of talks Tuesday, dismissing charges that their proposed free-trade pact will cost jobs in the United States and worsen pollution along the Mexican border.

The officials contended that the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement would bring prosperity to all three nations.

But critics say it could drain jobs from the United States and Canada to Mexico, where wages are far lower. They also fear that it will exploit Mexican workers and worsen pollution from a growing number of border factories in Mexico.

U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills said the agreement will have just the opposite effect.

Speaking to the National Governors’ Assn. meeting here Monday, Hills said the proposed pact would create thousands of jobs in the United States and would encourage environmental cleanup in Mexico.

The proposed agreement is aimed at phasing out tariffs and other trade barriers among the three countries. President Bush wants the agreement completed this year, with fast-track congressional approval in 1992 and implementation by early 1993.

Hills has been negotiating with Michael Wilson, Canada’s minister for international trade, and Jaime Jose Serra-Puche, Mexico’s secretary of commerce and industrial development. They say an agreement is possible before next year.

Hills said an agreement should add 22,000 U.S. jobs for every $1-billion increase in three-way trade.

Trade between the three countries reached $240 billion last year, she said. Mexico is the fastest-growing market for U.S. goods. U.S. exports to Mexico doubled since 1986, hitting $28 billion last year, she said.

Canada is the United States’ No. 1 trading partner, and Mexico is No. 3. Japan is second.

Hills said Mexican workers’ pay will eventually rise as productivity and profitability of their employers rise. That will eliminate some of the wage disparity that worries American unions, she said.

Serra-Puch told the governors that his nation has a crash program to improve its environment. With greater trade-generated wealth, Mexico will be able to do even more to protect the environment, Hills said.

Those arguments carried little weight with a coalition of labor unions, environmental and human rights groups that held a week-long series of hearings and rallies in Seattle to protest the negotiations.

Coalition members aren’t necessarily against an agreement but want to make sure their interests are reflected in any pact.

“The AFL-CIO supports expanded world trade and open borders,” Morton Bahr, president of the 700,000-member Communications Workers of America, told a Monday rally. “But we are also realistic about how other nations conduct free trade, especially on our southern border.”

Among rally participants were Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the Washington Assn. of Churches and representatives of about a dozen labor unions.

The U.S. trade representative’s office has scheduled six public hearings around the country to hear comments about the trade negotiations. The first is to be held today in San Diego.

But there’s no guarantee that testimony at the hearings will be considered at the negotiating table, said David Ortman, Northwest representative for Friends of the Earth.

“Without any input, this Administration is off in the ozone,” Ortman said.