The Emperor's New Clothes, a Cautionary Tale of Free Trade

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is one of the most hotly contested issues of the '90s. Advocates call the measure a recognition of the new global marketplace and necessary to keep North American markets competitive. Opponents call NAFTA a giveaway to Big Business, who use the agreement to ship good jobs south (while slashing the positions of skilled Americans), exploit Mexican workers by paying substandard wages, and fatten the corporation's profit margin. Filmmaker Magnus Isaacsson makes no secret of where he stands. He sees NAFTA as serving a "corporate agenda," transferring powers formerly held by government into the greedy hands of business. Isaacson visits Canadian workers who are angry over lost jobs due to the closures of large mills and factories; in addition, the loss of jobs has led to other negative consequences, such as cuts in social programs and a rise in domestic abuse. Isaacsson follows some Canadian workers to Mexico (so they can see where their jobs went), where they find peasants living in squalid "maquiladoras," earning an average daily wage as low as $4.50, with little union support. Even NAFTA supporter Bill Clinton has recently admitted that the promised benefits of NAFTA have yet to materialize. Much of the dialogue here is in Spanish and French with English subtitles, and while the problems explored in this video most definitely affect U.S. workers, the focus here is Canadian. This provocative, angry video is worth viewing, but it's a marginal purchase for most business collections. Aud: C. (S. Rees)