What You Don’t Know about Nafta – The free-trade deal is taking the blame for huge job losses. But its true effects on workers and competitiveness are far more complicated

Trade hawks hunting for the corporate villains behind the flight of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico might find General Electric a handy target. In the 14 years since the North American Free Trade Agreement dismantled most barriers to trade and investment between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, GE has sent thousands of U.S. jobs making everything from refrigerators to electric meters to Mexico. Today, the conglomerate and its joint-venture partners employ 30,000 Mexicans at 35 factories.

GE (GE) is moving higher-value work, too: It now hires an engineer a day at its 1,050-staff engineering and design center in Queretaro. Starting pay there is one-third of U.S. salaries.

But the story of GE and Mexico is about more than lost U.S. jobs. Since 2006, GE has struck deals to sell Mexican companies $350 million worth of turbines built in Houston, 100 locomotives made in Erie, Pa., and scores of aircraft engines. GE Capital has amassed $10 billion in real estate, corporate loans, mortgages, and other assets south of the border. This is what a free-trade deal is intended to achieve. Mexico specializes in industries where its cheap labor gives it an edge, and it imports U.S. goods requiring advanced technology and major capital investment. Some U.S. workers lose jobs, but new ones are created in services and heavy manufacturing. “Nafta has been an unqualified success,” says Rafael Diaz-Granados, CEO of GE’s Mexico operations. “It helped turn GE from a very America-centered company into a much more global one.” “*

*From: http://www.businessweek.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

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