CSotD: What’s black and white and blood-red all over?
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Matt Bors with a delightfully grim commentary on global trade and its most prominent cheerleader.
I was a business reporter at a paper on the US/Canada border when the Free Trade Agreement went through in 1988, and it was a very big deal. We'd already established enough cross-border shopping to justify building a huge mall that was much bigger than our own town could support, and we also had some small industries that existed to serve Canadian business needs.
Cross-border shopping faded, in large part because the two currencies equalized so that coming south to shop was no longer a bargain, and, to a far lesser degree, because a certain amount of nationalism came to the fore as Canada went through some pretty intense internal debate about the role of Quebec within confederation.
But, though we suddenly had empty storefronts at the mall, the FTA had invigorated, and continues to invigorate, the local economy.
Some Canadian firms simply wanted a US address to put on labels and so opened transshipment operations just south of the border, while others, like Bombardier, genuinely needed a US presence: Bombardier built a railroad car plant in Plattsburgh in order to qualify for certain contracts in which US presence in general and a New York presence specifically offered preference.
The jobs at Bombarier and similar operations along the border are something of a win-win: The Canadian firm saves money because of the lower social obligations in the US. They don't have to pay as much to help fund health care for their workers, for instance, and, on a smaller but still significant level, American workers don't get nearly the same holidays and vacations as their Canadian counterparts, particularly in Quebec.
It hasn't been an entirely happy marriage: On the grand scale, the agreement called for both parties to be bound by international arbitration in cases where a product appeared to be getting a government subsidy that created a fairness issue, and — perhaps predictably — that hasn't happened.
But on a local scale more relevant to Matt's cartoon, the quality jobs at Bombardier are not typical: Many of the smaller Canadian-owned plants are low-level packaging operations, essentially northern maquiladoras, capitalizing on the lower costs of US employment and more a detriment to Canadian workers than a benefit to Americans.
But the real maquiladoras are thriving just south of the US/Mexican border under what was the next step in removing international trade barriers: Turning the FTA into NAFTA.
At the time, there was a pretty strong chorus of "Well, wait a minute …"
A major issue was Mexican trucks shipping into the US without having to meet safety and emissions standards. I would assume this objection was being raised by American companies that benefited from transshipment of Mexican products.
But there were also objections from worker groups, because, while there were differences between US and Canadian business requirements, the two countries were roughly similar, and a lot of the imbalance in labor and taxation was semi-equalized by the scale of population and GNP.
The imbalances between the US and Mexico were substantial and we were now talking about a different matter entirely, though you'd have never known it to hear the cheerleaders of free enterprise.
And so the camel, having been permitted to slip its Canadian nose under the tent flap, quickly shoved its Mexican head in after, after which the Central American neck followed and, soon enough, the entire global beast was comfortably ensconced while American workers found themselves forced out and shivering in the cold of the desert night.
Friedman, to swap metaphors in midstream, may have come late to the party, but he brought the beer, in the form of his cheerful "how could it be otherwise?" 2005 best seller that explained why all this wonderful global free trade is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
And here we are.
Except for those Bangladeshi sweatshop workers, who aren't here because they are dead, but that's okay, because nobody with any power or influence gives a sweet shit about them. Nor ever did.
But there is a bit of humor to be found in this ongoing disaster: Sunday night, when Matt was doing his research for this cartoon, he stumbled across this, which he promptly shared on Facebook, causing many of his friends to not only get to bed later than they wanted but to have trouble falling asleep because they were giggling.
That glorious jerking down of Friedman's pants made a nice bookend to a day that had begun with another clueless-but-much-praised bloviator, Howard Kurtz, mounting a self-inquisition over at CNN wherein he was deeply chastised and forced to repent for his sins and, I guess, got to keep his show, though he'd lost his gig at the Daily Beast.
He said the Daily Beast thing was already in the works, was a case of mutual consent and he was fine with it. Probably wants to spend more time with his family, and, in the words of P.W. Herman, "meant to do that."
Meanwhile, the deservedly unrepentent Matt Bors is touring in support of his new book, "Life Begins at Incorporation," which I have no hesitancy in praising because not only did he not send me a free copy but quite the contrary: As a Kickstarter supporter, I actually paid more for it than you would have to. And you should. And you may also want to watch for him coming to a bookstore near you to sign it.
Finally, for those who missed the frank and honest discussion of media standards on last week's "Reliable Sources," here are the highlights:
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