Son of NAFTA? : Trump agrees not to terminate NAFTA treaty ‘at this time,’ will attempt renegotiation: White House

NAFTA probably deserves to die outright. It is a crony arrangement and is a great example of how what is often called “free trade” is actually managed trade. Managed for vested interests that is. 

As Mises.org pointed out in 2015,

Murray Rothbard opposed NAFTA and showed that what the Orwellians were calling a “free trade” agreement was in reality a means to cartelize and increase government control over the economy. Several clues lead us to the conclusion that protectionist policies often hide behind free trade agreements, for as Rothbard said, “genuine free trade doesn’t require a treaty.”

The first clue is the intergovernmental and top down approach. Intergovernmentalism is nothing more than a process governments use to mutualize their respective sovereignties in order to complete tasks they are not able to accomplish alone. Nation-states are entities which rarely give up power. When they finalize agreements, it is to strengthen their power, not to weaken it. On the contrary, free trade requires a decline of governments’ regulatory power.

Also, free trade does not require interstate cooperation. On the contrary, free trade can be and has to be done unilaterally. As freedom of speech does not need international cooperation, freedom to trade with foreigners does not need governments and treaties. Similarly, our government should not rob their population with corporatist and protectionist policies just because others do. Anyone who believes in free trade does not fear unilateralism. The simple fact that bureaucrats and politicians do not conceive of the international economy outside of a legal frame settled by intergovernmental agreements is sufficient to show the mistrust they express toward individual freedom. This reinforces the conviction that these agreements are driven by mercantilist preoccupations rather than genuine free trade goals.

We don’t need a “free trade” agreement. We need free trade. If I want to sell something to a guy in Japan, or England, or Argentina, I should be able to do it no fuss no muss. The government should have nothing – or nearly nothing to do with it.

(From CNBC)

The Trump administration had been mulling an executive order on withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement, the three-nation deal Trump repeatedly slammed on the campaign trail, Politico reported earlier, citing two White House officials.

A draft version of the order had existed, Politico and NBC News reported. Politico reported that the order was in the “final stages of review” and could have been “unveiled late this week or early next week.”

Trump previously said he wanted to renegotiate NAFTA, arguing that the agreement has punished American workers and companies.

Click here for the article.

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/