Adjunct Professor Matt Gold was quoted in a Lakeland Observer (MN) article about the Trump administration’s plan to renegotiate NAFTA.
Renegotiating NAFTA is part of the administration’s plan to restore a chunk of the 7 million factory jobs America has lost since US manufacturing employment peaked in 1979. NAFTA lured many manufacturers to Mexico to capitalize on cheaper labor.
But Matthew Gold, a former US trade official who teaches at Fordham University’s School of Law, says robots and competition from China have played a bigger role in wiping out American factory jobs.
“Nothing in the NAFTA renegotiation will bring back that tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs that America lost to automation and to trade with China in the years since we entered into NAFTA,” he says. “While this renegotiation will improve NAFTA, it will be a great disappointment to those who expect the see its impact on their lives.”