[Alberta's Child]

These "agreements" have a very one-sided aspect to them, since the U.S. has no qualms about violating them if it ever feels a need to do so.

In light of the abject idiocy we saw from the U.S. government during the softwood lumber dispute with Canada over the last five years, I'd say that any country that signs a "free trade agreement" with the U.S. is out of its freaking mind.

[Realism]

softwood lumber dispute with Canada over the last five years

Five years? More like on and off for several decades. Disputes should to be expected when a trading partner can produce and basically dump large quantities of a product into a market which cannot compete because the economic overhead costs are much higher.

[L,TOWM]

Point taken.

And given the disparity between federally mandated benefits, environmental, and labor law burdens -- I would have to say that the US is nuts to sign on to free trade arrangements with most of the developing nations in this world.

Does'nt apply to Canada, of course, since the goobermint shackles on Canadian capitalists are probably more intense than those here in the "land of the free."

I do find it ironic that the socialist Sanders whines about the "destruction" of Meh-hico's agricultural business to "cheap US imports." If this nimrod would secure our border and deport the cheap labor enjoyed by Archer Daniels Midland, Swift, General Mills, etc., the Meh-hiccan citizens here would go back to their native land and do what they doing 30 years ago -- farming for their patron and barely getting by.