A Creighton University economist says rural America will take a financial hit and “thousands” of jobs will be lost if the North American Free Trade Agreement is scrapped. Ernie Goss says economists “don’t often agree on many things,” but he says 99-point-nine (99.9) percent of economists see trade as “a real positive.”
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Negotiators from the U.S., Canada and Mexico began renegotiating NAFTA in August, but of the 30 chapters of the deal that have been discussed, only two have been resolved. With the president’s stated goal of reducing the U.S. trade deficit, Goss says he is “less than optimistic” about NAFTA’s survival.
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Goss warns that once foreign customers stop buying U.S. commodities, it’s difficult to restore the trading relationship. He points to U.S. beef sales to China which were suspended 15 years ago and only resumed this summer at a very low volume.
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