NAFTA and Cross-Border Labor Supply in San Diego, California
Should policies be developed within a national space or instead in a broader space, more in keeping with global production chains set up by transnational firms? (This is a draft of the abstract I submitted about three years ago in response to a call for papers on migration. I was hoping for a free ticket to fly to Montreal, Canada.) The paper explores how cross-border labor in San Diego, California, supplied by day laborers from Mexico corresponds to the agreements entered in the General Agreements in Trade and Services (GATS) complement the goals of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The GATS, a treaty of the World Trade Organization that entered into force in January 1995 as a result of the Uruguay Round of Negotiations recognizes labor supply providing services as crucial economic factor to production. The US, Canada and Mexico, stakeholders of the NAFTA, have been members of the WTO since January 1995 and signatories of the GATS. Under the GATS...