Atlasian Worker Defense Act

[JohnFKennedy]

I hereby open the debate on this bill.

[JohnFKennedy]

It seems to me that the North American Free Trade Agreement (Hereafter referred to as NAFTA) has both positive and negative effects.

On the one hand it HAS encouraged free trade between Atlasia, Canada and Mexico with trade between the three nations increasing faster than between Atlasia and the rest of the world so in some ways it DOES encourage free trade.

However, there are problems with this as it can also be said to encourage protectionism by making us trade less with outside nations. As other nations enter into these trade blocs like NAFTA, they become less likely to trade with those from other blocs, NAFTA has the potential to start tariff wars with other nations around the globe which is not something we should be looking into.

Various economic studies have generally indicated that rather than creating an actual increased trade, NAFTA has caused trade diversion, in which the NAFTA members now import more from each other at the expense of other countries worldwide.

A big question we need to ask here is, "has it helped Atlasia?" Studies show that NAFTA has had a moderate positive effect on Atlasian exports, income, investment and jobs supported by exports (going from US surveys).  Here I am going to quote a few paragraphs which use data from 1996, although a bit outdated it was all I could find at a glance.

# Several outside studies conclude that NAFTA has resulted in a modest increase in U.S. net exports, controlling for other factors. A new study by DRI estimates that NAFTA boosted real exports to Mexico by $12 billion in 1996, compared to a smaller real increase in imports of $5 billion, controlling for Mexico’s financial crisis. An earlier study by the Dallas Federal Reserve finds that NAFTA raised exports by roughly $7 billion and imports by roughly $4 billion. The relatively greater effect on exports partly reflects the fact that under NAFTA Mexico reduced its tariffs roughly 5 times more than the United States.

# DRI estimates that NAFTA contributed $13 billion to U.S. real income and $5 billion to business investment in 1996, controlling for Mexico’s financial crisis.

# These estimates suggest that NAFTA has boosted jobs associated with exports to Mexico between roughly 90,000 and 160,000. The Department of Commerce estimates that the jobs supported by exports generally pay 13 to 16 percent more than the national average for non-supervisory production positions.

This information would seem to suggest that NAFTA has helped Atlasia more than it has hindered it so far.

As of yet I am undecided as NAFTA seems to help us economically, but does seem to go against my belief in free trade.

[JohnFKennedy]

This is scheduled for a vote tomorrrow, can you not wait that long?

[JohnFKennedy]

I hereby open the voting on this bill.

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Nay

[JohnFKennedy]

One question to the Senate. How will this affect other free trade deals being negotiated with the United States such as CAFTA and the Chilean Free Trade Treaty?

I believe it has no effect.

[JohnFKennedy]

With six votes in favour to one against with one abstention, I declare this bill to have passed and call upon the President to sign it into law.