On Friday, the Clinton Administration released a report on the first three years of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The most the Administration could bring itself to say is that Nafta has had a ''modest positive effect'' on the American economy. That's a far cry from the extravagant promises made by the accord's proponents during the 1993 debate: ''Hundreds of thousands of new jobs! Higher wages! A cleaner environment! Just you wait and see!''
They were wrong. The facts are in.
Three hundred thousand new jobs? No. The report, required by Congress, suggests that Nafta-related exports have created 90,000 to 160,000 new jobs. But those figures don't account for the 132,000 Americans who have lost their jobs as a result of the agreement. That's the number of Nafta-related job losses certified under the Labor Department's Nafta Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, set up to help displaced American workers.
Higher wages? No. Mexican wages along the border have dropped from $1 to 70 cents an hour, according to International Monetary Fund figures. A 1996 Cornell University study commissioned by the Labor Department found that 62 percent of U.S. companies surveyed have used the threat of moving to Mexico to hold down wages here at home.
Environmental cleanup? No. Toxic sites along the border have continued to multiply. To date, only 1 percent of the $2 billion in cleanup funds promised under Nafta have been spent.
The Administration's report ignores these facts, trying to put the best face on an agreement that clearly hasn't delivered on its promises.
It is true that trade has risen between the United States and Mexico in the last three years, but it has been lopsided. Imports from Mexico have surged by 83 percent since 1993. What was a $2 billion trade surplus with Mexico before Nafta became a record $16 billion deficit last year.
Even the Nafta-generated exports are costing us jobs. More and more, multinationals are shipping components to Mexico, so they can be assembled by low-wage workers, then sent right back as finished products to the United States. According to an analysis by the University of California economist Harley Shaiken, these revolving-door exports have more than doubled, from $18 billion in 1993 to $42 billion last year.
So who does benefit from Nafta? Some of the big winners are the 28 core members of USA-Nafta, an industry group that lobbied for the agreement. Forty-two percent of these multinationals shipped jobs abroad once Nafta was adopted, an analysis of the Labor Department's trade adjustment assistance data shows. Their profits have increased by 296 percent, according to financial information published in Forbes.
Nafta's toll cannot be measured only in economic terms. The Administration's report also ignores real threats to our health and safety.
Imports of Mexican fruit have increased 45 percent since Nafta was enacted, and vegetable imports have gone up by 31 percent, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services reported this year.
This produce rolls into the United States on 3.3 million trucks a year. Fewer than 1 percent of these trucks are inspected at the border, according to a May 1997 study by the General Accounting Office. That means parasites, pesticides and infectious diseases go undetected.
For example, the Environmental Working Group found that 18.4 percent of imported Mexican strawberries contain ''very high rates of illegal pesticides.''
Earlier this year in Michigan, 179 children became seriously ill after eating contaminated Mexican strawberries. Shouldn't such incidents argue for stiffer inspections of imported produce? Unbelievably, under Nafta, such inspections could be considered an unfair trade restriction.
This appalling lack of inspections is also encouraging the drug trade. The Drug Enforcement Agency says that 70 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States now comes across the U.S.-Mexican border.
Nafta has not delivered on its promises. Let's not repeat the errors of the past. Instead of rushing to expand it and putting other countries on the ''fast track,'' let's concentrate on fixing Nafta first.