That would have been a gigantic step away from a better life for people in both nations. Beyond its ability to promote peaceful solutions to international disputes, globalization is not a zero-sum game when it comes to trade. That is a truth often overlooked by its critics. They often assume that every factory job created in another country to make goods for export to the U.S. comes at the expense of a similar job in America. That is not the case.
Trade is a two-way street, making jobs in both nations.
The critics come closer to the mark when they complain that the rules of international trade are tilted toward capital at the expense of labor. Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Trade Watch in Washington, made that point quite elegantly at the Forum, which was organized by the Institute of World Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Wallach, a Wausau native, complained that existing international trade agreements are crafted behind closed doors by national governments and corporations, leaving too little protection for labor. Soon, she said, the process that led to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which she criticized as unfair to labor, may be repeated to create a Western Hemisphere-wide free trade zone. Under fast track, Congress still must ratify any agreement reached by the president, but it must take it or leave it, with no amendments allowed.