Senator John Cornyn (R-Tx) got an earful from Texas officials today defending the North American Free Trade Agreement, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The Senate Finance Committee held a special meeting at the Marriott Plaza Hotel, next door to where NAFTA was signed by President George H.W. Bush and the leaders of Mexico and Canada back in 1992.
Russell Boening, President of the Texas Farm Bureau, says net farm income is down by 50% in just four years, the worst drop since the Great Depression.
"Due to this current state of the farm economy, we feel that a full withdrawal of the United States from NAFTA would be devistating to the entire farm economy," he told the Senators.
President Trump campaigned on a pledge to throw out 'bad' trade deals, but the testimony indicated support for NAFTA in Texas.
Paola Avila of the Border Trade Alliance says NAFTA has been a major boost to U.S. consumers."Consumers win with a variety and lower prices made possible by trade," she told the Senators. "This leads to an average savings of $10,000 a year for the average household of four."
Trump claimed during the campaign that NAFTA has cost American jobs, but witnesses said Texas has far more jobs in trade and in trade-related production today than in 1992.
They pointed to the fact that Texas has grown to become the largest exporting state in the country, and if Texas were an independent nation, the 20th largest exporting country in the world.The products that are exported are made in Texas, everything from computers to Toyota trucks to U.S. oil and gas.
And several recent studies have indicated that it is automation and the development of technology, and not NAFTA, that have caused a decline in jobs in certain industries.