Perot and Jesse Jackson Join Forces to Oppose Trade Pact
Texas billionaire Ross Perot found an eager ally Thursday night in civil rights leader Jesse Jackson as both denounced the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement as a drain on American jobs.
Perot, who has been campaigning vigorously against the treaty, told a town meeting in this Washington suburb that the only people who will benefit if the treaty is approved are Wall Street speculators and business executives planning to move their operations to Mexico to cut labor costs.
He told delegates at the annual convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that “the first jobs that will go to Mexico” will be those that otherwise might be funneled into inner-city economic development in this country.
Perot’s remarks were greeted with enthusiasm by Jackson, who said the proposed treaty amounts to “a slippery slope southward” for American jobs and will lead to the closing of U.S. factories. “NAFTA,” he said, “is a shafta, shifting our jobs out of the country.”
The proposed pact would erase tariffs and other trade barriers among the United States, Mexico and Canada.
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