Blog Discussion Group Seven
Blog post due at 11:55pm on November 6 and comment due at 11:55pm on November 9.
Mexico
- To what extent are the elitist and hierarchical tendencies of Mexican politics found in liberal democracies?
- What bringing
- Mexican corporatism brings various social actors (e.g., labor, business professionals) into an officially sanctioned ruling coalition. While guaranteeing certain privileges for these groups (e.g., job security for unionized labor and subsides for businesses), it also limits such freedoms as choosing when to strike or how to allocate capital. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such arrangements.
What bringing Mexico into a free-trade agreement with the United States and Canada a good idea or a bad idea for the three countries? Why?
ReplyDeleteNAFTA is not a good thing because our goods are taxed as they go into other countries (costing us money). The same goods aren't taxed coming into our country (meaning we make no money from charging taxes). This made US companies move into other countries (mainly Mexico) to get labor at a cheaper price and make more money when they taxed their goods coming back into the US. NAFTA costs the US money and saves money for Mexico and Canada.
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DeleteHello Naomi!
DeleteYou have some interesting points here, however I would also urge you to consider a few more points about the USMCA (which is set to replace NAFTA “soon”). NAFTA actually didn’t impose tariffs on countries. It was a free trade agreement designed to increase trade between the U.S and its closest neighbors. In fact, according to the U.S. Customs and Border protection (https://www.cbp.gov/trade/nafta), “NAFTA immediately lifted tariffs on the majority of goods produced by the signatory nations”. In addition, tariffs actually work opposite than the way you describe – when goods have an import tax, the foreign sellers will actually raise the price of their goods (after all, they still need to make a profit) to compensate for the import tax. This means, ultimately, an import tax (like the ones the Trump Administration have levied) will be paid by American consumers. Also, there are multiple reasons why companies move overseas/to Mexico. The largest is that American taxes are much higher than in foreign countries. Another reason is labor costs are much lower in places like Mexico. I would also add that the new trade agreement includes a wage rule where a minimum amount of a car must be made by workers above a certain wage threshold. This means that American car manufactures will most likely not look to Mexico as much – however that also means that the price of cars will go up as the higher priced American workers will have that cost passed on to American consumers (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/10/09/the-5-surprising-things-about-the-new-usmca-trade-agreement/). With all of this information, does that change your mind at all? Free trade is great and it is very interesting that this new trade agreement is almost exactly the same as the now demonized NAFTA deal. It really just has a new name and a few changes that aren’t overly monumental. Crazy, right?
3. It is possibly a good idea for Canada or Mexico, but for us in the United States for an employees input if someone was to work in the factories, it would not be good. Jobs are being took by Mexico where they could be done by American workers if the job were not moved to Mexico. United States workers have lost roughly 700,000 jobs in the transformation to Mexico because of how cheap the employees work over there to survive and live. The really only jobs it benefitted was trucking because they had to transport the products from the factories to their next location. The United States is hurting American employees because if it comes down to it and they want to have a job in the field that they know best, then they have to accept lower pay and live with it. This whole thing could be considered a bad idea, hurting United States employment.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.epi.org/blog/naftas-impact-workers/
What bringing Mexico into a free-trade agreement with the United States and Canada a good idea or a bad idea for the three countries? Why? ^^^
Deletemeant to put number 2. instead of 3.
I think the fact that we have the trade agreements with Mexico and Canada will not hurt US employment. The US is at an all time low in unemployment rates now at roughly 3.7 percent. The jobs in the US will be boosted now because we will have to produce things for trade. President Trump called the deal "one of the biggest trade deals in U.S history" and one of biggest accomplishments during his campaign is the unemployment rate so he shouldn't be doing things to hurt that. (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/trump-hails-canada-mexico-trade-pact-as-win-for-u-s-workers-idUSKCN1MB28G)
DeleteMexican corporatism brings various social actors (e.g., labor, business professionals) into an officially sanctioned ruling coalition. While guaranteeing certain privileges for these groups (e.g., job security for unionized labor and subsides for businesses), it also limits such freedoms as choosing when to strike or how to allocate capital. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such arrangements. Some advantages of labor unions are their improvements to worker behavior, they focus on the workers interests and try to improve their benefits, wages, and the environment around them to make them feel comfortable. One strategy that labor unions practice is working in groups, this sometimes ends up as a disadvantage for the union because having workers constantly work in groups may decrease their individual working ability. Some workers get lazy after working in groups for a long period of time then don't perform as well when asked to do tasks individually.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2 - What bringing Mexico into a free-trade agreement with the United States and Canada a good idea or a bad idea for the three countries? Why?
ReplyDeleteI believe that a three country free-trade agreement is much better than a trade arrangement between just 2 countries, so including Mexico is a good thing for all. With all three North American countries allied in free-trade, the deal should enable more competition and lower costs for all. Some specific benefits of including Mexico in the USMCA (U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement) is that, according to the Washington Post, the U.S. auto supply chain will become more secure. The reasoning for this is the USMCA mandates that auto parts must be sourced in the U.S. even if parts cost more than ones that come from the other two countries. In addition, the new trade agreement includes a wage rule where a minimum amount of a car must be made by workers above a certain wage threshold. This means that the normally lower pay scale of Mexican auto plants now disincentives car imports from Mexico and keeps the American internal auto manufacturing in a much better place than without the USMCA. Mexico benefits from this as workers will make more and this will all seemingly “even out.” All in all, by its very nature free trade benefits from cooperation among like-minded trading partners. Hopefully with the inclusion of Mexico, all of our countries can benefit.
Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/10/09/the-5-surprising-things-about-the-new-usmca-trade-agreement/
I agree that adding Mexico is a good thing and that in doing so costs are lower and trade has increased, however, do you see the potential cons that comes with adding Mexico? The United States is losing jobs and are being paid less due to this agreement. I still agree that the pros outweigh the cons but there are definitely some downfalls to the agreement. Overall our economy benefits greatly from it and it allows for open communication and competition between the countries.
DeleteWhat bringing Mexico into a free-trade agreement with the United States and Canada a good idea or a bad idea for the three countries? Why? Having all three countries coming together is a good idea. Each are our closest neighbors and getting goods across the border is easier than importing from overseas. The agreement (USMCA) is a contract between the three countries that will make trading fairer for all. This agreement stipulates that at least 30 percent of cars (rising to 40 percent by 2023) must be made by workers earning $16 an hour, about three times the typical manufacturing wage in Mexico now. The goal of the new deal is to have more cars and truck parts made in North America. Starting in 2020, to qualify for zero tariffs, a car or truck must have 75 percent of its components manufactured in Canada, Mexico or the United States, a substantial boost from the current 62.5 percent requirement. U.S. dairy farmers regain some access to the Canadian market, especially for what is known as “Class 7” milk products such as milk powder and milk proteins. The United States used to sell a lot of Class 7 products to Canada, but that changed in recent years when Canada started heavily regulating this new class. USMCA also imposes some restrictions on how much dairy Canada can export, a potential win for U.S. dairy farmers if they are able to capitalize on foreign markets. U.S. negotiators say they got a major victory by forcing Canada to eliminate the pricing scheme for what are known as Class 7 dairy products. That means U.S. dairy farmers can probably send a lot more milk protein concentrate, skim milk powder and infant formula to Canada (and those products are relatively easy to transport and store).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/01/winners-losers-usmca-trade-deal/?utm_term=.a0c014d11f51
What bringing Mexico into a free-trade agreement with the United States and Canada a good idea or a bad idea for the three countries? Why?
ReplyDeleteIt was a good idea to bring in Mexico into trade with the three countries. They are all bordered countries so it will ultimately be cheaper to trade with border countries than to import from other foreign countries such as China. The President called the trade "one of the biggest trade deals in U.S. history." The United States feels this deal will bring more jobs to the United States. These jobs will likely be factory jobs where workers will produce products to trade with Canada and Mexico. Canada's PM said "today is a good day for Canada.” This means that despite how difficult the trade standoffs were, they feel as if they benefited from adding Mexico to the trade deal. The biggest factor that each country will benefit from is jobs. When you create more job opportunities everyone ends up happy.(https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/trump-hails-canada-mexico-trade-pact-as-win-for-u-s-workers-idUSKCN1MB28G)
I am going to have to disagree with it being good and benefitting all three countries. Yes it will benefit Mexico and Canada and possibly United States, but it could also hurt the employees in the U.S. Factory workers could have their jobs moved to the other countries, which could lead to our employees losing jobs. Even if that did not happen our employees may be forced to work for less which could benefit the higher up workers and the ones that own the companies, but not the factory employees. You mentioned in your blog, "today is a good day for Canada" that right there is showing that it can be beneficial for them but can it really help all of the Countries? I mentioned in my blog that the U.S. factory workers have are and are continuing to lose roughly 700,000 jobs. This is a big impact for our fellow employees. I need to see some more positive before I am convinced.
DeleteYou bring up some good points William, however factory workers losing their jobs has more to do with the United States shifting to a service industry instead of a manufacturing one.While the lose of factory jobs can be attributed to NAFTA somewhat, the large majority of factory jobs are lost due to recession, foreign imports (namely Chinese imports), and the biggest reason, automation. Observing U.S manufacturing one can see we are producing more than ever but we have lost roughly six million jobs in the industry. The large migration from a manufacturing industry to a service industry is to avoid automation replacing humans since it is significantly harder and more costly to develop machines for the service industry.
DeleteWhat bringing Mexico into a free-trade agreement with the United States and Canada a good idea or a bad idea for the three countries? Why?
ReplyDeleteMexico entering the free trade arrangement is mostly a good thing, however, there are some cons to the agreement. While adding Mexico has increased trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico drastically and it helped the government spending, it also lost jobs in the United States as well as decreased wages and put Mexican farmers out of work. The trade agreement is a pro in that it increased economic growth, especially in “agriculture, automotive, and services such as health care and financial services” and it lowered prices on imports as the agreement disposed of tariffs. (https://www.thebalance.com/nafta-pros-and-cons-3970481)
You have given many great points on both the good and bad aspects of Mexico having a free trade agreement with the U.S. and Canada. Do you think the sectors which grow economically will mainly be the same ones that experience a loss in terms of US and Canadian jobs, perhaps due to the outsourcing to the less costly labor which Mexico offers. Also, even agricultural jobs across both nations may be replacing workers if such an agreement is reached. After the NAFTA agree there was a significant surge in illegal immigration from Mexico. To cover for our own economic impact, the US government would most likely issue subsidies to US companies, now that import and export taxes and restrictions for competing companies have been lifted.
Delete(https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/120457/2/jaae453.pdf)
2. There are many great advantages in having a free-trade agreement between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. One of them would be the economic efficiencies that would result. Without the tariffs and other export and import taxes, companies would have reduced costs, possibly employee more workers and drive up production. This could also reduce the price of goods, increase wages, all which increase economic growth in the countries. When NAFTA was created between Canada and the U.S., they saw a dramatic increase in there GDP. Though, one of the possible downsides to Mexico joining is the loss of jobs in the US, leaving for much less expensive labor in Mexico.
ReplyDelete(https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/naftas-economic-impact)
I agree that by adding Mexico into the free-trade agreement it brings a lot of advantages to the table one of those being a better economy as you said. I also think that by disposing the tariffs the US and its people would benefit greatly from it. I think you have a nice structure to your answer, you did a good job incorporating the NAFTA to back up your statements. My two questions are what types of jobs were lost in the US? And about how many jobs were actually lost?
DeleteThe trade agreement known as NAFTA is both a positive and negative economic force. I believe that is a positive economic force as the agreement encourages trade between these nations. Since NAFTA first was enacted trade between these nations has quadrupled and profit from these trades has amounted to a little over 1 trillion dollars in 2016 alone. NAFTA has aided in economic growth and job development in all three countries. In addition to this NAFTA has decreased prices of goods and helped with government spending, both of which would be impactful for the Mexican people and government.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.thebalance.com/nafta-pros-and-cons-3970481