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Dr. Krieg was on the CTDEC [ Connecticut District Export Council] for some time. He was originally appointed by Malcolm Baldridge and subsequently re-appointed by every Secretary of Commerce up to and including Ron Brown. He resigned over the issues of NAFTA and the politicization of the Commerce Department under Clinton. DEC's historically were sounding boards, and business advisors for international trade but became subverted during the Bush administration as a rubber stamp for executive policy. At that time Dr. Krieg was the CEO of Widder corporation a manufacturer 80%, exporter 15%, and importer5% of industrial products. His latest book The Satori and the New Mandarins [ISBN # 0-87319-044-0] is a top seller through the underground media, and is available in most book stores. FTAA means Free Trade Area of the Americas. It is the planed expansion of NAFTA to the entire hemispheres of North and South America. Historically it is important for the reader to understand what results have been experienced by NAFTA so that a reasonable judgment on FTAA can be made. As the forerunner of FTAA it is meaningful to comprehend what economic benefit has been derived by American workers, as well as the nation as a whole, through the NAFTA accord. Firstly NAFTA is not a treaty because it was never ratified by congress with the constitutionally required majority to attain treaty status thus it has no legal position. Second the agreement was never relay scrutinized by either house of congress, as it was submitted to a lame duck session prior to publication. NAFTA in fact is one of the most voluminous and convoluted international agreements ever proposed, and illegally enacted. The agreement comprises two volumes. Volume I is 1 * inches thick and Volume II is 1 inch thick. Pages are not numbered. The entire concept of NAFTA is the reduction of all duties and tariffs to be lowered to zero over a ten year time frame, ten percent per year, across the board, and by all sides. Obviously a agreement that consists of paper to a stack height of over 2 * inches does a great deal more than that. We here however do not want to dwell on verbiage but rather look at the impact of NAFTA. Prior to the NAFTA agreement the United States enjoyed a trade surplus with Mexico in the amount of $ 5.4 billion dollars per year [1997]. Even with crooked statistical information as provided by USDC [ United States Department of Commerce] this has deteriorated to a trade deficit of $ 16.7 billion in the following year. This means that as a nation we have lost a total of $ 22.1 billion in trade with just one of the NAFTA members in 1997. The deficit continues to expand in 1998 and every year thereafter. But these numbers are provided by USDC and are in fact not correct. When American firms ship goods for assembly to Mexico they are counted as exports. When they are re-imported to America they are not statistically reported at all. The Marquilladoro industry in Mexico which is 100% assembly of goods for the American market comprises billions of dollars, and thus the statistical information about NAFTA as reported by USDC is worthless. A reasonable estimate in dollars lost in just the Mexican portion of this agreement may be assumed to exceed $ 30 billion. What has been the effect on American manufacturing labor ? It is not unreasonable to speculate that America has lost in excess of 3 million manufacturing jobs due to NAFTA. The administration counters this reality with statistical number again concocted by USDC that are not representative of any reality. USDC informs us that they create, [ government is incapable of creating jobs] more jobs than are lost in this affair. This is based on the creation of jobs, in the economy, statistically counting only the job numbers and not the income level, or in fact hours of actual work, provided by them. Furthermore the numbers are inflated by 35,000 per month which are added to new employment figures, and called the pug factor*. USDC claims these are the number of new jobs created in the "underground Economy". Manufacturing jobs pay the highest income level, almost all new jobs are in the service sector, many are part time, paying between 25 and 30% lower wages than manufacturing jobs, with either no or substantially reduced benefits to workers. Thus the agreement has reduced overall income in America nationally. Likewise statistics for unemployment are reflective of yet another lie. We are informed again by USDC that American unemployment is at it's lowest level since the second world war. This particular statistic is arrived at by counting only individuals receiving unemployment benefits. Not counted are: Those whose benefits have expired and could find no replacement job, Homeless, Sick, Unemployed who's benefits have expired, Part time workers, Welfare recipients, and those on relief. When we add all to the equation we arrive at well over 14% as the correct unemployment number. We can now clearly see that NAFTA has proven to by an unmitigated disaster for not only American labor, but also for small business, and the Nation as a whole. American labor because they are being forced into lower paying service sector jobs, small business because they are unable to compete with multinationals who are job-shopping labor intensive work to Mexico at $ 1.44 per hour, and the nation as a whole because our national standard of living is being reduces. Under NAFTA it can reasonably be argued that American manufacturing industries have no option, but to farm all labor intensive work out of the country. If your competitor is manufacturing a product utilizing a labor base who's income is $ 1.44 per hour, and which is not subject to: Fair Labor and Standards legislation, Minimum Wage Legislation, Compensation laws, Social Security, Unemployment, OSHA, Environmental legislation, nor any other of the alphabet soup of federal and state agencies, he has little choice if he means to stay in business, he must seek a lower priced labor pool, or he will become un-competitive. Thus we force small business out of manufacturing, and large business into seeking foreign cheaper labor. Mexico has a population of about 70 million people, while America has about 260 million. The proposed expand FTAA region will have a population of 750 millions. This statistic alone should give the reader pause to consider the effect it will have on our economy. Mexico is one of the wealthier of the nations south of our border. Let us consider the average income of some of the planed 34 FTAA member states and compare this with our own. Country Per Capita Income El Salvador $ 1,020 Guatemala $ 1,250 Columbia $ 1,110 Peru $ 880 Nicaragua $ 470 Honduras $ 890 Haiti $ 380 Statistic based on 1994 figures world bank Just exactly how will you be able to compete with a labor market that has an average income of $ 857.00 per anum, substantially less than an American manufacturing worker earns in a month. The obvious answer to that is you won't, and neither will your employer. We should also put to rest the ludicrous notion of the "Naderites" who claim NAFTA will increase American Exports to this region. People who have a $ 850.00 income purchase bare necessities and if anything else from a cheaper source than America. When we now consider the entire picture we come to an interesting question: Why would anyone propose such outright stupid anti American policy ? To respond to that question we must look at where the impetuous for these agreements and quasi treaties originate from. With FTAA that is simple, it comes from the State Department, who's marching orders emanate from the CFR [Council on Foreign Relations] in New York City. The effort is neither labor nor industry driven. The CFR is totally dominated by international big money interests. They have controlled the dialogue at the State Department since the FDR administration. There is only one group of individuals who benefit from NAFTA or FTAA, the same people who pushed GATT and WTO on America. International financiers and large multinational corporations. The entire FTAA / NAFTA idea rests on a very simple two word fallacy FREE TRADE. It must be clearly understood exactly how wrong this concept is, and to who's benefit it will come. Free Trade has been sold to the citizens by a group of academicians, and bankers who live in the insulated dream world of a socialized and segregated class. Earnings and benefits by this class of people are well beyond the wildest dreams of the average worker. Tenure, Sabbaticals, Stock options, massive pensions, Partnership benefits, Loans, Mortgage payments, Maids, Butlers, Gardeners, are just some of these while salaries are usually well above the $ 100,000.00 level. They have sold this FREE TRADE concept by the fallacious statement that the great depression was caused by protectionism. A totally false statement. They have indicated that these agreements would raise your standard of living by lowering purchase prices. They did not tell you that the cost , and there is always a cost, was to lose your job and benefits to the third world. The U.S. Steelworkers have joined forces with a trade group, The Made in USA Foundation, and filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of the NAFTA agreement. They need your help. In this instance there is an avenue you can pursue to help the Steelworkers write your congressman and senator and insist that the NAFTA agreement be scraped, send a copy to G. Hubbard at the Steelworkers at 1150 77th St. NW Washington DC 20036. Every letter will help. If you belong to any organization who might be interested in joining the suite, contact them and send them a copy of this article. Thanks in advance for your help. * The Pug Factor is an arbitrary number of 35,000 jobs added to the new employment statistic monthly. USDC claims that this is the total amount of new underground unreported employment in the United States. Page URL: http://www.kriegbooks.com/ftaa.html |