New NAFTA pitting California exporters against labor, with Democrats in the middle

Battered by foreign tariffs for the past year, California farmers now see a ray of hope for their operations in the United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement. It’s an updated version of the North American Free Trade Deal, or NAFTA, that the White House is preparing to send to Congress for ratification. But there is no guarantee it will pass once it gets there. Labor groups are telling lawmakers that ratifying the deal in its current form will hurt workers in California and beyond. They’ve blamed the original NAFTA, which went into effect in 1994, for costing Americans jobs as companies moved operations to Mexico, where wages are lower and regulations more lax. Stuck in the middle: California Democrats in Congress, particularly those from the Central Valley, where the agriculture industry looms large...MORE