Labor's Wrong Tack on Free Trade

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At its winter convention in Los Angeles, the AFL-CIO went on record as opposing any extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement to other countries unless future agreements contain requirements that the labor laws and environment regulations of the signing countries are as stringent as our own. That view is a barrier to any further trade agreements at all.

This isn't labor's first word on this issue. It vigorously opposed NAFTA because Mexico provides less protection for its workers and enforces its environmental laws less vigorously than we do. Labor believes that such an imbalance gives Mexico cost advantages that have killed U.S. jobs.

It is unclear …