Harley Shaiken is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in labor issues.

The real tensions over the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) concern U.S.-Mexico trade. A key goal ought to be getting a better deal for American workers and the best route to that is improving conditions for Mexican workers on both sides of the border. We can embrace trade, engage the global economy and prosper together.

Nafta gains bypassed Mexican workers and the fallout damaged workers and communities in both countries.

When Nafta was debated over two decades ago, worker rights and environmental standards were by far the most contentious issues. The deep concern was that high productivity and quality in Mexico — combined with low wages — would prove irresistible for U.S. production. In fact, that is what happened. Even the threat of moving plants to Mexico served to depress U.S. wages.

Merchandise trade between the two countries soared six-fold to $480 billion in 2015 as a small U.S. trade surplus morphed into a $110 billion deficit. The U.S. lost 850,000 jobs as a result between 1993 and 2013, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Pundits tend to treat low wages in Mexico as a given. They’re not. They reflect government and corporate policy to attract investment through depressed wages. A convoluted, at times corrupt, labor relations system makes it virtually impossible to form independent unions in the export sector.

After World War II, strong U.S. unions forged a link between rising productivity and wages. The result was a rapidly growing economy and a middle-class society from which businesses as well as workers benefited. In Mexico, a lack of labor rights has fractured that link. As a result, Mexican manufacturing productivity rose 80 percent between 1994 and 2011 while real compensation dropped almost 20 percent. Not only did the benefits largely bypass Mexican workers, their depressed wages set a new competitive standard for U.S. workers as well.

President Trump has stated often that inept negotiators made Mexico a winner and the U.S. a loser during the writing of Nafta. The reality is that Nafta provided considerable benefits to investors and transnational firms on both sides of the border while gains bypassed Mexican workers and the fallout damaged workers and communities in both countries.

Many things need to be renegotiated in Nafta — from environmental standards to dispute settlement panels. A reform of core labor rights — the ability to form independent unions and bargain collectively — is essential prior to the full provisions of the agreement being implemented. Anything less will prove more cosmetic than substantive.

Effective labor rights in the export sector would clearly benefit Mexican workers. The flip side of this would be higher purchasing power, stronger economic growth and more imports from the U.S. It could move both countries toward a more balanced trading relationship, and relieve a fierce downward pressure on U.S. wages and manufacturing jobs.



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