This Has Been One of THE Trade Deals of All Time

NAFTA - Is it the BEST trade deal of all time or the WORST?

Some sources/other readings:
Trade is Not a Four Letter Word - Fred Hochberg

[AoShinden]

Canada, United States and Mexico
Properly abbreviated as C.U.M

[partyhardcake]

man, saying it hit mexican farmers the hardest was an understatement, it literally started an insurgency in south mexico

[europeanmappin]

cant believe when usa said “its trading time” and dealed all over the world, truly the moments of all time

[leonardohernandezcabrera]

At university, my thesis advisor told me what happened with NAFTA when he was working in the Mexican chocolate industry. Nestlé and other multinationals began to buy Mexican chocolate companies and to reduce costs they decided to buy cocoa beans from Africa which were cheaper than Mexican cocoa this unleashed a crisis in Mexican cocoa producers who abandoned their crops and began to emigrate to the United States.

[Jorora]

I love how an axolotl is representing Mexico. Nice to see the axolotl representing its home! A lot of people don’t often think of Mexico as it’s one and only home outside of captivity.

Edit: Damn I didn’t think this was something that a lot of other people would find exciting. Thanks for the likes!

[alehaim]

An important thing to understand about Mexico was that during the singing of Nafta Mexico was ruled as basically a single party dictatorship by the PRI, which had started as a socialist party following their victory following the Mexican civil war, only to become just yet another corrupt oligarchy so interlinked with the history of Mexico ever since the Spanish. The Mexican agriculture collapsed because the comfortable agricultural communes had been protected from foreign competition and as such they were basically decades behind the US. Simultaneously the Mexicans had no ability to develop a future for themselves or innovate without backing from the PRI which by the time of Nafta had grown to become a very exclusive elite. When the party lost power in 1997, what followed can be summed up as the total collapse of Mexican institutions from which it has yet to fully recover from considering that cartles which the PRI in its corruption allowed to gain so much power basically rule much of the country.

[johnboyc]

Quickly becoming my fav channel. Love how you make this shit not boring at all. Very easy to understand and still be entertaining

[r.a.]

He's right. I grew up near Pittsburgh in the 70's-80's and the jobs were already leaving before NAFTA in the 90's. We knew that they were going to Asia (specifically China). Its just that the agreement was the handy catch-phrase for what was happening to Midwestern American jobs.

[casuallavaring]

"Made in Mexico" sounds better than "Made in China."

[sansbazinga]

To summarize this video. NAFTA: "Some of you may die (American manufacturing, Mexican agriculture)but that's a sacrifice I am willing to make."

[ARES-zffz]

When corruption and cartels are no more, my country will become top tier. I hope it happens in my lifetime…

[tonypuga]

I love the axolotl as Mexico's mascot

[lukedornon]

Worth noting part of the rust belt's problems come from US protectionism in the form of the Jones act. In the 19th century what we now call the rust belt held a major advantage in transportation costs compared to much of the world because all the primary industrial steps (coal, iron ore, oil, factories, etc.) were all easily situated on connected inland waterways. Even now the rust belt could still hold a competitive advantage if we brought back cheap water transportation combined with our existing cheap flat land and *relatively* cheap energy.

[cdbxuqy]

As a Ukrainian, the more I learn about the US, the more Eastern Europe just seems like pure satire of the US. Here no one knows what's going on with the politics, there isn't really a national economy but every city has it's own radically different lifestyle, the TV is just bullet points of events and let you fill in the blanks with your own ideology to make the ratings go up, etc.

[dr.quackenbacker]

Mexico's axolotol looks so polite. How could you not trade with him?

[jesusangelgarciaquintero]

There is Even a proposal made by the mexican president in the reunion of North América leaders on México City, of reinforce the manufacturing in NA to lessen the reliance on Asia imports (mainly china) in order to relocate all the Jobs on asian soil to North American jobs, which is another way of becoming more competitive as an economic zone. In México there is a lot of hope in the agreement, we are hoping in becoming the manufacturing muscle in the region;)

[Soulis]

As a Mexican I sleep well knowing that Emma and her two moms are always protecting north America.

[ihavetowaitdaystochangem]

I have seen many Nafta videos on the internet, this is definitely one of them

[omarcruz]

I came in reluctant, but as someone that has worked in all 3 countries, and worked on the transfer of a dying factory in upstate New York to Mexico, I gotta say you did a good job, you went the long way, but there is one more to highlight, at some point the manufacturing in the US can get restrictively expensive, to save the firm you have to make difficult decisions. If you send the operation to Mexico you can keep better control over your IP, China is no longer the appealing destination it once was, IP is not respected there.

[Domnom]

My dad grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. When the steel mills left, the city basically crumbled, and it's honestly really depressing to be in now. It's fun learning about things like this that can explain my lived experience, especially when you break it down in such an easy to understand way. Thanks so much!