Introduction
The political and corporate advocates of NAFTA (North American Agreement on Free Trade) go on to support this deal and still argue its consequences on consumers and workers from all three nations; USA, Mexico, and Canada have been extremely beneficial (Caulfield, 2009). As a matter of fact, the effect of NAFTA on a large number of people from the three nations has been overwhelming. This agreement has shattered more jobs compared to the number of jobs it has created; it has led to increase in inequality and poverty, has depressed wages, damaged democracy, enfeebled governments, corroded social programs, and immensely augmented the powers and rights of property owners, corporations and investors. In Canada, NAFTA has been utilized to weaken its independence and endorse its economic amalgamation by the US. Immense pressure has been put on Mexico and Canada to conform to the objectives of United States’ foreign policy (Caulfield, 2009). This paper discussed the impact of NAFTA on the Canadian labor movement.
Impact of NAFTA on the Canadian Labor Movements
The period of US-Canada free trade started by signing the US-CUFTA (Canada US Free Trade Agreement) in the year 1988, and this activated an extraordinary growth amid the two nations; from about US$116 billion in the year 1985 to about US$ 240 billion in the year 2002. The US imports rose by 162% while Canadian exports rose by 221%. According to media experts and politicians, these figures were an indicator of the success of NAFTA but, such rudimentary measures are short off the free trade genuine economic rationale. The rate of GDP increased after NAFTA was implemented; however, for the entire period of free trade, it has averaged to about 1.6% yearly, which still is less than the rate of pre-CUFTA. The major economic foundation for free trade is productivity. However, it was believed that rise in a trade that was two- way would automatically increase Canadian productivity, and hence result to rise in living standards and superior wages. Between 1989 to 1993, in the business sector, the standard labor productivity grew to about 0.6% yearly, compared to the year 1981 to 1988 when the rate of productivity increased by about 1.6% annually. In 2002, there was n striking rise of about 560,000 employment opportunities in Canada, but approximately 40% of these jobs were part time while about 17% were self employment opportunities (Kay, 2011). Therefore, while the statistics of employment seems promising, the procedure of coming up with extra flexible workforce goes on.
Finally, the free trade pushers and the government of Mulroney argued that an agreement of free trade with the US would excuse Canada from American countervailing duty and anti-dumping measures. However, this is not true since Canada is still subjected to the United States arbitrary actions like the disciplinary United States duty on exports of the Canadian softwood lumber. Before the period of free trade, Canada was in a position to oppose the charges of the United States that its regional transportation and development programs and …