Madison…Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) issued the following statement concerning the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its future. This morning the MMAC World Trade Association, US Chamber of Commerce, WMC and Wisconsin Farm Bureau held a program on the impact of NAFTA on Wisconsin.
“Trade with our closest neighbors is vital to the Wisconsin economy with roughly 45 percent of Wisconsin exports going to Canada and Mexico. Surely, a 23-year old agreement can be modernized but not to the detriment of important industries and jobs in our state.
“NAFTA has worked for Wisconsin. It’s not the time to put new obstacles in place that would hurt the very markets that our business owners and farmers depend on.”
A recent study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce determined which states would be hit the hardest by withdrawing from NAFTA. The state of Wisconsin was ranked second. It’s estimated that 250,000 jobs would be at risk if NAFTA were to be eliminated.