NAFTA creates jobs

This is in response to Brian Zell's column, "No one wins with NAFTA." Zell presents a strong argument against NAFTA. His primary argument for NAFTA is that \"the only people who have prospered under the New Economy and free trade are the rich.\" \nIn some respects Zell has valid support in his opposition to NAFTA. NAFTA focuses on specialization among countries in the free trade zone. Allowing specialized tasks, a country can perform rather than worrying about tasks that are non-optimal. This promotes the division of labor. As a country spends more time on one task, he will become better at performing the task, and may even find easier ways to perform the task by inventing new processes/technology. The productivity of the worker thus increases significantly with the division of labor. Division of labor may seem to decrease labor, but in actuality shifts labor to more skilled-positions.\nFree trade does not deprive American workers of jobs, but can actually create more jobs for American workers. American workers who are employed in producing what other nations can produce better will be redirected to employments that are more beneficial to the nation as a whole. Thus, noted in Adam Smith\'s Wealth of Nations, "the people thrown out of one employment would easily find another." NAFTA has exempted sectors, proposing that we slowly open all markets at once. "Freedom of trade should be restored only by slow gradations, and with a good deal of reserve and circumspection."\nThis is to ensure that people will not be deprived of employment or a means of subsistence, and allow for slight adjustment where necessary. Jobs that do not require a high level of education or skill, therefore it will not be hard for people to leave one employment to learn another. The jobs are already simplified tasks due to the division of labor. Jobs that do require a high level education, for instance lawyers and doctors, are not traded in foreign markets; manufactured goods are traded. Since the nation will be producing more goods and increasing its wealth, it will have more capital to employ more productive hands. This means more jobs for workers. \nNumber of jobs created by NAFTA are hard to estimate, but with specialization in a free trade agreement translated into lower cost to consumers. Which in return increases consumption and consumption produces jobs in many different sectors. In the macro sense, everyone benefits in a more free trade agreement.