NAFTA.....Guess we'll see who has the biggest set of ba...

[KR-oldmexico]

Search away. I've never hidden anything from anyone on here. I did not vote for Trump, nor did I vote for Hillary. I'm not a huge fan of cutting environmental reviews, especially since that's how I make a living and see it as being hugely important regardless.

But, the question being asked is "What might the consequences be to villifying Mexico?" I'm not talking about direct response, as in having less laborers and more expensive things to buy. I'm talking about global politics. Look at Duterte and the Philippines to see how easily a country can change allegiance. Then look at the Crimea situation to see how Russia feels about spreading its wings.

I just hope this administration doesn't take things too far.

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So do you believe that the government and EPA have overregulated most things in America?? There will always be a need for environmental protection but they need to be just that Environmental Protection not abuse of power and an avenue to push political agendas!!

[AtTheWall]

Peña Nieto has called on the Trump administration to do more to stop the illegal flow of weapons from the US into Mexico, which Mexican officials blame for fueling a brutal drug war.

LMAO!!! If they would do more NARCO CARTEL ENFORCEMENT without having Local and State Law Enforcement on the CARTEL PAYROLL - MAYBE JUST FREAKING MAYBE - THIS MIGHT NOT BE A PROBLEM!?!?!?!?

They can't even drink their own Public Water from the Mexico City Water Supply and they want to blame us - for their issues!?!?!?!


WAKE UP MEXICO! YOU HAVE BECOME AN ABSOLUTE GOVERNMENTAL FAILURE TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO!!!!

The USA has no bearing on your issues - FACE IT AMIGOS! Deflecting the real issues within your own country - and blaming US.....guess what, WE DON'T PLAY THIS BS ANYMORE!

[Ætheling]

LMAO!!! If they would do more NARCO CARTEL ENFORCEMENT without having Local and State Law Enforcement on the CARTEL PAYROLL - MAYBE JUST FREAKING MAYBE - THIS MIGHT NOT BE A PROBLEM!?!?!?!?

They can't even drink their own Public Water from the Mexico City Water Supply and they want to blame us - for their issues!?!?!?!


WAKE UP MEXICO! YOU HAVE BECOME AN ABSOLUTE GOVERNMENTAL FAILURE TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO!!!!

The USA has no bearing on your issues - FACE IT AMIGOS! Deflecting the real issues within your own country - and blaming US.....guess what, WE DON'T PLAY THIS BS ANYMORE!

I think that the wall being built and the enforcement of immigration laws will ultimately help Mexico with their drug problem. People keep fleeing and the super rich ones have all moved to The Woodlands to escape the cartels. If they were forced to go home they would also be forced to deal with the cartels.

[AtTheWall]

Agree - Mexico must hit a bottom for forced change. Status Quo has over 100,000 dead - MEXICAN NATIONALS & LAW ENFORCEMENT & FEDERAL DEAD!

Small businesses can't operate without the Cartels forcing tariffs every week, on the shop owners.

They have destroyed the Mexican business communities throughout their entire country.

They are sitting on a viable opportunity, rivaling Canada. They have year round agriculture, immense natural resources (oil, gas, precious metals) with a LABOR FORCE - WILLING TO BE TRAINED AND ENGAGED TO EMPLOY!

Yet, they hold themselves back - DECADE AFTER DECADE!

Saltillo & Monterrey are thriving. The Cartel and crooked Mayor and Police Chief were ousted politically. This is where all of American & European businesses are centered. And these two cities look like America and or Canada with a Latin spin.

But it's only one region of Mexico that gets it.

The rest of the country - same old same old.

Business - Corporations and outside investments, they do not want to expose themselves to financial and liability risk. So pursuing commerce, south of the border, is a risky proposition due to the Cartels. And the lost revenue and advances to the people of Mexico, due to the corruption that allows this scourge to continue, has been the source of their recent few decades of stagnation.

Snowbirds by the thousands would winter there...for example. If it was safe and secure and more modernized. This alone is millions in tourism dollars denied. And they attempt to portray Mexico as a get-away country for tourism.....but the BLACK CLOUD of REALITY holds them back.

If you can't even provide security - how the hell are you going to GET TO THE NEXT LEVEL?!?!

[Charles]

Guys like this are ***holes. I hope Karma pays him a brutal visit. Get what you pay for and pay for what you get.

[Leverhunter]

Another issue with NAFTA is that it is ripe with fraud. I have personally seen NAFTA being used against the US by many countries, most notable China and Mexico. Goods are exported from China to the US that are subject to tariffs so China and Mexico pretend that the goods are in transit to Mexico and therefore are not subject to tariffs yet they never end up leaving the US. Another thing they do is to bring in goods to Mex and then add Hecho en Mexico on them and send them "trade free" into the US. Of course as usual we play by the rules and they don't so we get taken advantage of. Also, who do you think lobbied the government to enact NAFTA in the first place? It was US manufacturers who wanted to legally and cheaply be able to ship US jobs into Mexico and still enjoy the logistics of being so close. We obviously need to have trade agreements with any country who isn't our enemy but I am all for America first and bilateral agreements which are easier to enforce.

I believe it was Ross Perot that said "if NAFTA passes you will hear a big sucking sound from jobs leaving the US" and that is exactly what happened. We saw some cheaper goods come into the US at the cost of a lot of good jobs leaving the US.

[Man]

Agree! And let's be honest, we can't survive without Mexico manufacturing. We will never be able to compete with their labor rates and manufacturing rates! That's the facts, they need us and we need them!

Are you Enrique Peña Nieto?

We would be fine...we'll just make our own talavera pottery.

[Chew]

No Mexicans = No Tacos

Trump better no mess this up!

My favorite!

[Neck]

There is a documentary on Netflix named Cartel Land. It is very good and yet very sad. It is filmed down in Michoacán and it shows just how dire the situation is. It follows around José Manuel 'El Doctor' Mireles, the leader and founder of the Autodefensas. The people have tried rising up. They have fought and died and watched their families get murdered in front of them. They would kill the cartel members and chase them out of their neighborhoods and restore peace but then the corrupt politicians/police/feds would come in and the cartels were right back. Eventually you see the leaders of the Autodefensas get bought off too. It really is worth watching if you want a first hand account of what is going on down there. Very very sad.

[AtTheWall]

My first thought after reading through was that if Russia did show up south of the border wouldn't the USA intervene using the Monroe Doctrine as its justification? Seems like a precedent was set during the Kennedy administration when Russian missiles were found in Cuba.
Not saying it could, would, or should happen. Just wondering why no one has mentioned this (Monroe Doctrine). A discussion point if you will.

Mexico has trade with China and other nations of the world. Coal, silver, copper & mercury...to name a few.

China doesn't need to stage manufacturing operations in Mexico. Being Communist...and Russia bordering on Communism under Putin, expanding any Manufacturing operation into Mexico goes against Communist pride.

And Mexico is very reluctant to allow the Gringos from the North to stage any L/E and or Military presence there....much less Communist centric countries.

Now Panama & the Canal, this would be a different story but, Panama has become more viable and profitable in recent decades due to tourism and control\management of the canal. Panama gets it....Mexico doesn't and The Canal is worth fighting for - even for the USA.

[BoneDigger]

So do you believe that the government and EPA have overregulated most things in America?? There will always be a need for environmental protection but they need to be just that Environmental Protection not abuse of power and an avenue to push political agendas!!

Yes, the EPA has been politicized and needs to be reeled in. Not abolished, but set back on track. I'm more concerned with NEPA and the NHPA, specifically Section 106, not being eliminated or scaled back.

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[AtTheWall]

Cartel operations. Force shops to pay tariffs or close. If you don't comply, you die.

Once you have shops paying in, and others closed for business due to Cartel pressure, you create a massive void, in viable jobs and opportunities at the local level.

And once the local level has no means of making money to support their family, the next course of action, is to join the CARTELS.


And the CYCLE OF THE CARTEL - THEIR PLAYSHEET - CONTINUES to ROLL AND ROLL!

Cartel monies provide 60 billion USA Dollars to Mexico - under the table - no taxes at all. And this money gets redistributed, throughout Mexico, as these NARCO TRAFFICKERS SPEND IT IN MEXICO.

And this circular cycle = ROBIN HOOD and the theme of NARCOCORRIDO music, which continues to entertain and fuel CARTEL APPROVAL throughout Mexico and Latinos along the American\Mexican border.

It's a culture - a business and absolutely illegal on both sides of the border. Yet the source - Mexico - refuses to do the heavy work required, to fix this problem.

60 BILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY A HUGE PERCENTAGE OF MEXICO'S OVERALL ANNUAL GDP - UNDER THE TABLE = THIS IS THE PROBLEM!

The Wall and Trade reviews - kill NAFTA - need to happen! If we continue to wait on Mexico to fix this crap, it will never happen. So this is the first domino, of many more to come.

They now need to deal with the Gringos from the North Mexico - and fix THEIR PROBLEMS or, we will simply watch Mexico IMPLODE from within.

They need us more than we need them.

[Tmag]

Let's knock the rust off them buildings and get back to manufacturing..............
time to make America great again!

[AtTheWall]

Let's knock the rust off them buildings and get back to manufacturing..............
time to make America great again!

I'm thinking, design and build new modern buildings, that leverage the latest technologies on water reclamation, solar, wind and technologies - under this administration so, the model of future manufacturing - leveraging today's technologies lays the framework, for America to take the lead world-wide again! Don't make it mandatory but, allow it to foster and develop, as these newer technologies evolve. Many can take advantage of this and many of these reclamation systems, actually provide tons of fault tolerance and savings in daily operations.

We have an excellent opportunity to modernize Oil Refining, Chemical Engineering...hell, even new high tech agricultural chemical formulations that allow crops to grow faster and better, in a small window, where doing any of these things were met with regulatory and bureaucratic red tape, from previous decades.

We have been shut-down and held off due to all of the regulatory RED TAPE burden, placed on private industry, over several decades.

With so much BS overhead, and years before approvals and EPA testing, with no guarantee this new idea, formula and or manufacturing process is even going to be approved, millions lost and the timing of market advantage - burned and lost.


We must modernize and we must reduce the layers of red tape that have denied advancements, investment risk and return and most importantly - job growth! They are all inter-connected.

[Quackedup]

Bringing manufacturing back to America will make the price of goods go up. This is a short term problem though, as the extra jobs in our country will help the economy and the price of goods that went up will be offset by the economy going up and everybody making more money overall in the long run.

It isn't an overnight process, but I think it is one that needs to be started. It isn't something one president can fully institute. It has to be an ongoing effort over several election cycles. Basically, for America to be great again, like it was 40-60 years ago, the mindset of Americans has to change. We have to negotiate trade for our benefit and understand that we are starting a process. We can not allow future leaders to circumvent what this administration is doing.