The Ways of Trade

Let’s talk about the drug wave from Mexico. 25 years ago NAFTA the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed by Bill Clinton that opened the commercial flood gates from America, Mexico and Canada. NAFTA tripled trade across America that was a boost to the economies of all three countries. It also shaped the drug trade. Back in the 1980’s most of the cocaine was smuggled in from Columbia to Florida by planes and boats. In that time continuing into the 1990’s America clamped down on these drug trade routes. Then the Mexican cartels were paying Americans to smuggle weed and heroine through border crossings hidden in their cars.


NAFTA helped the drug trade in that it phased out tariffs across America and made it easier for trucks to cross into America. So from 1994 incoming trucks crossing from Mexico doubled in numbers by 2001. The border patrol only inspected about 10% of them. That meant that millions of trucks just entered our country without inspections. George Bush our President then wasn’t cracking down on anything there. So the drug problem escalated with large amounts being hidden in large tucks amid legal cargo. A decade after NAFTA 90% of Columbian cocaine was smuggled from the Southwest Border.


NAFTA didn’t just make it easier to transport drugs. By removing tariffs the trade agreement flooded Mexico with American subsided corn. That put 2 million farmers out of work in the Bush era. Mexican unemployment was everywhere and the people were living in poverty. Mexican Drug Cartels filled the void and gave many Mexicans jobs in making cocaine since America’s appetite for the white powder never diminishes. Now Mexicans were getting good pay and young men were dealers and gangs were formed shooting each other in turf wars.


In 2008 Bush agreed to send billions in military aid funds to Mexico. That only put more fuel where the gangs were beefing up themselves with bigger and better weapons too and El Chapo emerged as the drug leader of Mexico. The violence was everywhere. In 2017 murders triples from 8,000 in 2007 to 31,000 in 2017. If you were trying to raise a family there you would run too with just the shirt on your back to get the hell out of there.


In November Trump initiated a new trade pact between Mexico, America and Canada called the USMCA Agreement. Congress still has to ratify it but if it passes it will look a lot like the old NAFTA from the Bill Clinton era. It will help American dairy farmers sell in new Canadian markets but Trump’s agreement doesn’t address the cartel problems in the south. He could care less. His idea is just put up an expensive wall and forget about the drug trade. Meanwhile the drugs can just keep moving at border crossings and even into America through boats.


Trump has never governed anything in his life. Why hasn't he appointed an Ambassador to Mexico? Why doesn't he send diplomats to Mexico? Why doesn't he get the United Nations involved in this crisis? We don't even have any representation there anymore. She resigned too. He is an embarrassment since America hosts the United Nations as its home base. Why doesn't he have discussions with the Mexican President to make Mexico a safe place for its people to work and live?


We all know that Trump has crippled all our good government workers by ordering the longest shut down in history and now he has a planned “National Emergency” in 3 weeks demanding funds for tax payers to pay for his stupid wall. How about Trump work on stopping America’s appetite for illegal drugs?