international trade essay

Question 3. Short Essay. This question gives you a chance to apply what we have learned and discussed, and helps sharpen your writing skills. 20 points.

Ever since the signing of NAFTA, the U.S. has run a sizeable trade deficit with Mexico. This shows that free trade with Mexico, under NAFTA, is detrimental to the U.S.; i.e. it is a bad deal. Comment.

Please finish your essay using MS word and print it out. 12 points, Times News Roman, double spacing. There is no min. requirement or cap for length. You are not expected to use data to support your arguments, but the use of data is a plus. If you choose to use data please list your data sources. (Hints: 1. Make sure the sources are credible before you use the data; 2. Examples with made-up numbers, like those we use in the Ricardian model, are theory, not data.)

Your essay grades are based on clarity of exposition, coherence of arguments, and how well your theory (and data, if you use any) supports your arguments.

Please give credits to your sources and explicitly cite them. Otherwise you run the risk of plagiarism!

The following is a very nice example of supporting your argument with data, and references, by L. Newsom, for Econ 370, Spring 2016.

“…In the claim Sanders says that the loss of [manufacturing] jobs is due to the low wages other people are willing to accept. If that was true then the wages in the manufacturing sector in the United States would be decreasing to try to compete. The data is quite the opposite since the average manufacturing worker earned $79,553 annually in 2014 including benefits which is much higher than the average in the United States (2).

…

[2] National Association of Manufacturers. (2016). Top 20 Facts About Manufacturing. [Online] Available: http://www.nam.org/Newsroom/Top-20-Facts-About-Manufacturing/”