Ding ding ding ding!

Thank you BIll Clinton for that gem of an idea.  All that NAFTA has done for this country is slowly continue to push companies into Canada for cheaper labor and more relaxed laws and give them a competitive advantage over American companies.  Near where I live atleast 4 -5 companies have sold and had their operations  moved into Canada.   This is happening all over the country in a variety of businesses.  People talk about Chinese buying American ventures,  the Canadians are doing a lot too and moving it up to Canada.  

Canada is not in the right position to get pissed, lol. Just gobble it up. xD

When the Canadian dollar was worth $0.65 US you could argue that cheap labour was causing the jobs to be outsourced ...Now that the Canadian dollar is worth more than the American dollar the reason Jobs/companies are still moving to Canada is that we have a more business friendly environment due to lower corporate taxes, more streamlined and effective regulation, and less corruption in the government.

Beyond this, I find it very interesting that after (about) 10 years criticism of NAFTA has almost dissappeared because there had been such dramatic economic growth with relatively low inflation that even the most critical opponents had to admit that free trade worked; and now, after a "Made in the USA" financial crisis has hurt the economy around the world Americans blame NAFTA and not their incompetent regulators, corrupt government, criminal banks and greedy neighbours for the poor economic conditions.

I agree with you, NAFTA allows United States businesses to benefit Canada and hurt America.  Nafta allows  Canada to maintain a competitive advantage over United States businesses.  Where I ask is a bulk of this dramatic economic growth taking place?   Seems to me that Canada (Not the United States) has been the biggest benefactor of NAFTA.   

America is at fault for many reasons for their current position and could actually learn from Canada quite a bit.   However,  Canada was able to put themselves in that position while piggy backing off of America and taking advantage of their businesses.

Does the free trade agreement specify that nontariffed Canadian imports are only limited to US government services or something? The US government is a consumer, thus they'd have the right to choose with who they go with. Whether that's a correct decision or not is another argument, but I don't exactly see how the free trade agreement is being violated.

It doesn't though... what allows Canada to maintain a competative advantage over the US is overregulation.  I mean, it SHOULD be more expensive to work in Canada on the surface of the matter.

They just have half the corproate tax rate, compaired to the US, despite being way more socialist.  Which really says something when people complain that the corporate tax rate should be HIGHER.

lol free trade benefiting Canada and hurting America is hilarious. So is the notion that American businesses are helping Canada more then they are America.

What benefits are Canada getting out of free trade that is harming the US, its a two way street the NAFTA agreement has both benefitted and harmed both countries in many different ways.

You point out that businesses have been moving operations to Canada and that this is harming America. Well Canadian's don't want your American businesses up here either. Walmart has driven every major Canadian retailer out of business, Best Buy came in and whiped out all of the Canadian electronic's retailers. The cost of all these Canadian businesses going under is huge as now American businesses make all the profit and that profit is sent to America and spent in the US economy.

You realize that all the Canadian car manufacturers were killed by their American counter parts. The Canadian manufacturers were almost all taken over. Tim Hortons is like the only hugely successful store in Canada and it is a coffee shop, but even they took a heavy hit from StarBucks.

Free Trade then drives costs of living way higher for Canadians. Before free trade manufacturers and retailers had lower prices then America because their was less demand for products. Gas was ridiculously cheap because Canada had a shit load of it and only Canadians were buying it, other countries paid tariffs which increased Government revenue. Electricity was cheaper every single necessity in life was cheaper.

But after free trade suddenly all the companies have to export products to America. Instead of companies competing for 30 million customers they now are selling to almost 400 million. This added competition drives up prices for all the commodities in Canada. Then the fact that their is a much larger market in the US enables American companies to be able to sell products at cheaper prices then Canadian businesses can.

Walmart for example can afford to buy a huge quantity of stock for a cheap price. In fact I have a friend who owns a pizza chain one of the biggest in Canada. He said Coke charges more for his chain to buy Coca-cola then it costs to buy it from Walmart. I worked at Real Canadian Superstore and was told that the company was actually paying more for every product by huge amounts then Walmart.

American businesses are killing the Canadian ones. This means all the profits of these businesses don't remain in Canada they are brought straight back to America where they are pumped into the US economy. Because their is a bigger market in the US then Canada , Canadian pay more for our own resources then American's do.

As for jobs, lol despite all these American companies opening up shop in Canada, Canadians still import more American products then America does Canadian. Meaning those products are built or provided by American businesses which employ Americans to provide them. I won't deny that the car manufacturers for example have benefited Canada with jobs but guess what those jobs are heading back to America or over to China now. Countless factories are closing on a regular basis.

Do Canadian businesses have a competitive advantage? No, you even specifically mention the American companies have a competitive advantage. Who's benefiting most from all the money the American companies make? Not Canadians.

Target coming to Canada for example, they are bringing around a thousand American staff to Canada. However they bought the Zellers chain and guess what all those Canadian's are loosing their jobs.

The American economy benefits far more then the Canadian one. Also just look at our countries population how can 30-million people demanding higher wages and in a country with a more expensive currency possibly be stealing all the jobs from America which is over ten times the size. Its not even physically possible for Canada to steal America's jobs. The more companies that move to Canada the more expensive it becomes to run businesses in Canada. Which in turn drives everything up!

Canada's economy does benefit, but not at the cost of the US economy which benefits far more.

That's only selectively true. They have half our official corporate tax rate for big business, but we don't actually charge any big businesses those corporate taxes. For example, through legislation oil companies pay what is for all intents and purposes zero taxes. The same is true of large technology companies (Microsoft, Apple) and many many manufacturing companies. That said, our government has certainly become bloated and lumbering, and needs major reform in general. 

If you want to know what screws over US business and labor for the average employee it's that our corporations pay their CEOs about four times the global average for an equal position (yay American greed!). If even 1/3rd of the money paid to the top 5% in the US was distributed down to the businesses themselves we could create a job surpluss, raise wages for the lower and middle class, and increase training available. This is why trickle-down economics does not work. Greed trumps intelligent business operation every time, with the few exceptions of the occasional charitable billionaire like Warren Buffett or Bill Gates. 

PS: I will happily flee this mess of a country some day for somewhere like Canada. 

Except the US Tax rate is still one of the highest when you take into account loopholes.

Think how badly overtaxed other companies are then eh?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-14/u-s-companies-pay-world-s-sixth-highest-tax-rate-study-finds.html

Aside from which, i'd like to see that CEO study... largely to see if they actually adjust for the size of the company and it's assets... or if it's just juding "CEO Pay" which would be kinda silly... since the CEO of Wal-mart should make more then the CEO of a French "super store".

It's been four or five years since I read it, and it was in a peer reviewed journal for a problem solution paper I wrote in college, so I'm not sure I can find it. As I remember it, though, it compared executive income and benefits (their total draw from the corporate coffer) relative to company profits and value. It not only had national average statistics but cited several examples of countries with much better balancing of pay distribution and profits.

I specifically remember Japan having a massive differential, which is something you've likely seen yourself. If not, you can always look up the fairly recent Nintendo executive sallary cut. Miyamoto was only making about $1.2 million, and Satoru Iwata was only making $2 million. Not only that, but they willing cut those already very low annual sallaries in half. No US company of the size/profitability of Nintendo pays its executives anywhere near that low, and they would certainly NEVER consider a willing sallary cut. 

That said, Asian countries have a lot more business and worker loyalty in general as part of their culture, and the difference in European countries is not nearly as stark. In fact for a businessman in Asia it's proper to introduce yourself as "owned" by your company. I.e. my father works for Rolls Royce, so when he was in Japan he would introduce himself as "Rolls Royce's Steve." Your company is a part of your identity. It's a pretty different environment, and one with far less job turnover.