Reference no: EM132012323

At Examiner.com on February 23rd, 2011, Dave Paulson wrote: "Hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs were lost during Clinton's presidency, but those losses pale when compared to what happened under George W. Bush. By the end of the junior Bush's first term, the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico had swelled to 12 times its pre-NAFTA level, and 2.8 million manufacturing jobs had been lost. Many factors contributed to these losses, but trade policy that allows unfair conditions and tax policy that promotes offshoring have been major factors leading to the 20 million high-paying manufacturing jobs that were lost between the 1970s and the present." Free Trade Agreements are often condemned with claims like those made above. What do you think about the validity of such claims? What other factors might one consider when trying to determine whether a Free Trade Agreement is "fair" or not?