A new report by Business Roundtable suggests that ending the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would result in job losses of more than 1.8 billion in the United States.
As negotiators are meeting in Canada this week, the report was released to “urge the administration to take into account the potential damage of withdrawing from NAFTA.” Drafting two scenarios, the report considers potential tariff increases by the U.S. on Canada and Mexico and increases in duties on most-favored-nation rates, while considering no change in trade between Mexico and Canada. The report finds that most of the job losses would affect workers holding lower-skilled occupations, including production workers in manufacturing and agriculture and lower-wage workers in services industries. The report estimates the if the U.S. would walk away from the agreement, agriculture exports would fall between 4.7 and 6.6 percent, up to an initial value loss of $70 million.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Grains Council says U.S. corn exports last year were worth $3.2 billion to NAFTA member countries.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.