Debunking USTR Claims in Defense of NAFTA: The Real NAFTA Score 2008
NAFTA is a hot-button issue in the 2008 races. Given polling shows that the vast majority of Americans think NAFTA was a damaging mistake, the George W. Bush administration and other defenders of the NAFTA status quo have been put on the defensive. In response, administration officials and pro-NAFTA pundits have gone into spin mode, recycling discredited claims about the pact, or suggesting that the facts are too complicated to make an assessment. Bush’s U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) recently put out a set of talking points in this vein. But the USTR’s claims are misleading, as the facts below show.