Is NAFTA A Ticking Time Bomb? by Pat Choate (NAPSA)—Sometimes, actions taken with the best of intentions can present unintended consequences. For example, trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement—NAFTA—can affect more than trade. Little noticed during the NAFTA B = ratification debate, for instance, was the appendix to Chapter 16, which sets out a new “Treaty National” visa program for Mex- ican and Canadian professional workers. Underthis treaty pro- vision, Mexicans and Canadianspossessing a baccalaureate degree or an appropriate license in one of 67 listed professions were given the right to work in the United States. The 67 professions on the NAFTAlist include some of the best paying jobs that America offers—accountants, architects, computer system analysts, engi- neers, industrial designers, hotel managers, research assistants, dentists, pharmacists, physicians, nurses, social workers, chemists, and college teachers, among dozensof others. These are the good-paying replacement jobs promised American workers being displaced by global free trade deals. Yet, NAFTAput no limits on the number of Canadians who could qualify for a TN visa. And though a limit was set for Mexico—5,500 TN visas a year for 10 years—it ends on January 1, 2004. This TN visa program is a ticking job bomb for American workers. The Boston Globe reports that over the past two years, “the number of native-born Americans with jobs fell by almost 1 million. In the same two years, the number of employed immigrants rose by 600,000.” Today, hundredsof thousandsof Mexican professionals qualify for U.S. jobs under this TN visa program. And if they get a job here, they can bring their families with them. In each of these 67 professions, U.S. workers are paid far more than their Mexican counterparts, making a move here to take a professional job almostirresistible. Now, the Administration’s newly negotiated U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement, which Congress will soon be asked to approve, gives Chilean professionals similar TN visa privileges. Inevitably, the 50plus other nations negotiating fast track trade agreements with the United States will demand the same. We think that changes in global immigration treaties, such as the TN visas, are of such great importance to American professional workers that the President should negotiate them separate from trade agreements, and the Congress should consider them separately, not as adjuncts to trade pacts such as NAFTA. e Mr. Choate is director of the Washington, D.C.-based Manufacturing Policy Project.
