President Trump repeatedly referred to the North American Free Trade Agreement as “the worst trade deal ever made.” But how did the agreement serve border relations since its signing in 1993?
Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington D.C. think tank that supports liberal immigration policies, joins us to talk about his new book about the forces that have bound the U.S. and Mexico since NAFTA was enacted.
When Donald Trump was campaigning to be president in 2016, he frequently denounced NAFTA, claiming the agreement caused the U.S. to rack up over $2 trillion in trade deficits, and lost millions of manufacturing and auto jobs.
Then on Nov. 30, Trump joined then-Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau in Buenos Aires to sign his own modified version: the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
FRONTERAS EXTRA | Fronteras Extra: Building Bridges Across Borders
Selee, author of “Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together,” said that before NAFTA, Mexico wasn’t much on America’s mind, and vice versa. Since its enactment just over 25 years ago, the economies and cultures of the two countries have changed significantly.
In the book, Selee explores how the U.S. and Mexico were both enhanced — and threatened — NAFTA. He also looks ahead with the Trump administration heading into its third year in office, and the beginning of a new administration in Mexico with Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Norma Martinez can be reached at norma@tpr.organd on Twitter @NormDog1 and Lauren Terrazas can be reached at lauren@tpr.org and on Twitter @terrazas_lauren
