GATT, NAFTA - what advantages?

In the opinion-page article ``GATT Approval Proves the Two Parties Can Tango,'' Dec. 13, Rep. David Dreier (R) of California states that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a small trade deal compared with the Uruguay Round, has created nearly 100,000 export jobs in one year.

Representative Dreier does not state if the jobs created are near-minimum-wage jobs or manufacturing jobs, or whether they are export jobs from Mexico or from the US.

Even if the ``nearly 100,000'' jobs did turn out to be American jobs, from other articles I've read it seems we could still be losing about 44,000 jobs.

In defense of Representative Drier, he is not the only advocate of NAFTA and GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) who has practiced this apparent deception. I have heard many other politicians, as well as those who would benefit from these agreements, marching to the same drumbeat.

Someone is going to have to spell out the advantages of NAFTA and GATT, to me and to the American blue-collar worker, in single-syllable words. Fernand Feig, Gross Ile, Mich.

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