COMMENTARY ON COMMERCE : FREE...

Contrary to the short-term memory of some economists, this country was built on protection of U.S. industry and government assistance for development of industry. Much to the disappointment of many “free-trade” advocates, modern Japan and Germany became world economic powers by rejecting their advice.

Now that certain large businesses are beyond national borders, and are unconcerned about the nations they leave behind, the American people are being told that our only way to economic salvation is to subsidize, i.e., pay, these entities to move our manufacturing base to another nation, in this case Mexico.

The chief assumption of “free” trade advocates is that “free” is “fair.” But how can there be “fair” trade when one trading partner allows its people to operate machinery that maims and injures them and be paid $4 a day, while providing no health care for their families, and, as if to insult the entire planet, rapes the environment?

If anyone believes that the pay of $4 a day is commensurate with our increasingly underpaid workers, ask why Mexicans risk their lives to come to America.

Say you are a worker in Mexico and want to buy some blue jeans. It will cost three or four days’ pay: $17 to $23. A dozen eggs in Mexico is $1.20, 25% of your daily pay.

The people live in shacks with no running water, no telephone and have no cars, even after 10 years of foreign “investment.” They get to work on beat-up buses with crates for seats, paying fares that cost 17% of the family income. Turnover at the plants is a staggering 10% a month due to abuse and mistreatment by employers and corrupt unions controlled by the government.

On Jan. 8, 1990, some thugs were hired by a corrupt union that thought its killing some workers on the premises of the Ford Motor Co. plant in a small Mexican town would help the company. Ford, at the time, was pressuring the workers to take a reduction in pay!

This is not Mexico-bashing or race-baiting. This is a call for another way of looking at solutions to stop the economic decline of America and the abject poverty of our closest southern neighbor.

If businesses in Mexico want to sell to the United States, why shouldn’t a tariff be placed on the products to make up for the unfairness in the way those businesses treat their employees and the environment? Why not create common standards for labor, social and environmental rights so that the standard of living for Mexican people can be raised so they can purchase the products they produce?

American workers face a myriad of problems, not the least of which is the current health-care crisis and the decades-long decline in purchasing power. Our domestic market will not be magically reinvigorated by further threatening their wages. Wholesale transfer of labor-intensive industry does not help this country, economically or strategically.

It is ironic that our biggest trade growth should come, not with Third World nations such as Mexico, but with the European community. The Europeans, however, have national health care, paid parental leave of up to six months for each parent, double and even triple our national vacation time (U.S. workers are anything but lazy compared to Europe!), strong protection of workers at their workplace and tough environmental laws.

“Trickle-down” trade with a deeply impoverished country such as Mexico will only further weaken the ability of people in both nations to secure their rights and to have stable economic futures.

American consumers need jobs and money to buy products, an elementary fact forgotten or ignored by “free” traders. There is nothing wrong with trade, but trade without fairness and concern for the long-term health of the people and the planet is foolish policy. Unfortunately, foolishness is the policy of free traders.