You are going to see a lot of rubbish in the coming weeks about the virtues of yet another so-called "free trade" deal, this one with Colombia. It’s always interesting–mind-boggling and enraging as well–that proponents of so-called "free trade" spew a whole bunch of nonsense about the virtues of these deals and what we will all get from them–but then they are never held to account when those promises turn out to be unfulfilled.

    Helpfully, the folks at Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch have put together a nice little myth versus fact on NAFTA. The conclusion:

An army of think tanks and corporations spends millions every year in an attempt to muddle even the basic facts on NAFTA. We know that under NAFTA, the U.S. trade deficit is up, manufacturing jobs are down, wages are stagnant, Mexican immigration is up, Mexican growth is down, and policy space has been seriously limited. Bush administration officials and pundits can debate whether any of these facts matter, but they cannot make up their own facts, nor serve up irrelevant ones in the hope of distracting policymakers or the public from continuing to demand trade policy change.

    You can see the whole document here. Spread the word.

P.S. I would go on about this more but the truth is that its Opening Day and, as a season-ticket holder, I’m going to be taking off soon for the ballpark. Thank god–a real sport to watch.