The Truth About the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

[PETRUS]

10. The Mexican story

There is little evidence that NAFTA has had a positive impact on Mexico's growth. Further, since the pact's implementation in 1994, wage growth in Mexico has been low, and at least several hundred thousand families have been displaced from their farms.

You're right to suspect that a certain amount of US prosperity has been dependent on exploitation outside of our Borders. It's also true that trade can be good, but these agreements are structured to benefit certain segments of society. It would be quite possible to structure trade and immigration agreements with other nations that distribute the benefits across the population, instead of handing all the gains to the top strata and protecting the professional classes at the expense of the majority.