NAFTA has been a net plus in Texas

NY Times:

On Trade, a Feisty Trump Risks Economic Damage


The president’s threat to pull the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement would hurt the very workers he says he aims to help.
I think Trump's pitch about NAFTA was mainly addressed to winning blue-collar votes in blue states like the Rust Belt.  In Texas, NAFTA actually created jobs.  It is estimated that exports are responsible for about a million jobs in Texas.

From the Rio Grade Valley where produce processors and transportation companies bring in food products to keep fresh fruits and vegetables in the grocery stories when they would be out of season for domestic farmers, to oil and gas shipments to Mexico, there are just a lot of jobs tied to this trade and I am glad to see Trump backed off the border adjustment tax idea.

That said, I do not think his attacks on NAFTA will hurt his rust belt supporters because their problems are with Democrat controlled states which never really took advantage of the opportunities offered by the trade agreements.  They were too busy driving manufacturing out with confiscatory taxes and high regulations.  Forced unionization in these states was also a detriment to job growth.  Data shows that most of the job growth in the US is in right to work states.

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