A new report by Business
Roundtable suggests that ending the North American Free Trade Agreement 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.
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