The degree of unemployment is affected by domestic policies and international relationships and events alike. International competition has been increasing greatly since World War II, and the U.S. now faces a major challenge from such countries as Japan and West Germany (now a unified Germany). American manufacturers have been trying to find ways to reduce costs and increase production in order to attain or maintain a lead, and one of the ways they have found is to move their manufacturing operation to some other country that has a less expensive labor force and fewer regulations. The globalization of industry and related changes are having a profound effect on the U.S. labor force, which must contend with increased quotas, reduced union power, job flight, high unemployment, and other issues related to international competition and its effects on U.S. manufacturing. The government has been asked by various parties to do something about these changes, from the imposition of protectionist policies to discouraging American businesses from leaving the country.
International competition has increased with the economic growth and, in some markets, domination of the Japanese and the Germans. In addition, there have been various efforts to improve the trading position of other regions of the world, notably the development of the European Community as a Europe-without-borders and as a trading bloc with respect to the rest of the world. Such changes remain uncertain at this time--will they work as intended or will they only create more problems for individual countries within the Community? Having recognized the need for a different trading stance, the United States has embarked on another uncertain experiment with the North American Fair Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with neighboring Mexico and Canada. This is in addition to provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which Mexico signed in 1986 ("U.S.-Mexico Free...