THE PUBLIC MIND: READER VOICES STRONG DISAGREEMENT WITH NAFTA PROPOSAL

To the Editor:

I'm writing concerning the upcoming vote on the NAFTA treaty with ~Canada and Mexico. I am strongly opposed to this act, and I firmly believe it to be the downfall of the American economy, as we have known it in the past.

Why would a U.S. labor intensive manufacturing company stay in the U.S. where his labor costs will run typically $7 to $15 an hour, when he can pay Mexican workers at a rate of $.58 to a little over a dollar an hour. His new Me~xican venture would also not be subject to aggravations and expenses such as: workman's comp., unemployment comp., social security, retirement and health plans, OSHA, corporate taxes, dental insurance, and the list goes on and on.

It is my understanding that a mini-NAFTA zone has been put into effect on a trial basis, in Mexico, in a border town called Maquiladora. This 16-mile stretch in Mexico has been so wildly successful for the Mexicans, that over 2,200 multinational corporations have manufacturing plants in operation now employing over 800,000 Mexicans. (Isn't anyone aware that IBM and AT&T have terminated over 100,000 U.S. jobs alone in the last three years, while building large facilities in Mexico?)

The Clinton ad~ministration ha~s said that the answer to these lost U.S. jobs could best be handled by retrainin~g schemes and economic growth in the U.S. ~(I might add that Bush and Reagan said the same thing.) My question is this: What do you retrain an IBM electronics engineer to do ... sell insurance or flip hamburgers?

It is also my understanding that the U.S. government is supporting a position whereas the U.S. will guarantee the underwriting of a World Bank loan in the billions of dollars to "help Mexico over the ad~justment period after NAFTA goes into effect." My question is this: What the hell kind of an adjustment would Mexico have to make? Don't they understand that the only adjustment that will have to be made is by the millions of U.S. workers who will simply lose their jobs, however lowly they may seem to you and me.

Within~~~ the last couple of weeks, it has been reported in the news that there is going to be a multi-billion dollar bill brought before Congress to clean up massive environmental contaminants caused by manufacturing multi-national corporations doing business in Mexico. I would suggest to you that our money could be better spent helping to clean up the hurricane disaster in Florida and the flooding in the Midwest. Are American taxpayers responsible for lax environmental enforcement of laws in Mexico? Surely not.

Arthur L. Sobery

Cape Girardeau