Nah, I just thought it was a funny video related to Canada, oops, I meant to say Mexico
There is a definitely a trade deficit with the two countries in assembled vehicles and parts, but components and parts manufacturing have not been displaced by imports. What's wrong with "Free Trade"?
Old data, but interesting because it was around that time:
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R44907.pdf (fig.9-10, p.12)
There is more to unfettered free trade than we can argue about here, but I think we can agree that it's not the best solution for the environment - I pick on this aspect since I know it's of most interest to you. There of course is the human exploitation aspect too, but let's stick to environmental concerns.
From the NAFTA and Motor Vehicle Trade link you posted, the same page with the figures, consider this for example: "a vehicle assembled in the United States has more than 10,000 parts that come from multiple producers in different countries and may travel back and forth across borders
several times. One company producing seats for motor vehicles, for example, incorporates components from four different U.S. states and four Mexican locations into its products, with final assembly in the Midwest". By your stance against fossil fuel usage this is not environment friendly at all - not that I'm against fossil fuel, we've talked about CO2 before, but I bring this up just for you since I know you're against it.
From other sources,
NAFTA's Impact on Mexico [
Sierra Club], "According to Mexican government figures, the cost of NAFTA-related environmental damage in 1999 alone was an estimated $47 billion".
"Despite an anticipated rise in pollution levels, NAFTA did nothing to strengthen Mexicoโs environmental protections. In fact, enforcement of environmental protections declined noticeably after NAFTA, and is often ignored by both corporations and the Mexican government."
and
"The weakening of environmental standards by NAFTA has also caused the increased use of chemical intensive production methods in Mexicoโs large commercial farms. These methods include the use of harmful pesticides and fertilizers that pollute land and water resources. Specifically, they contribute to high soil salinity, ground-level ozone, lake and river acidification, and the disruption of natural forest processes."
To sum it up, you can't have free trade if you don't have the same set of regulations in the participating countries - including environmental ones, and expect things not to go downhill from there, as in just creating entropy if you will.
