An old joke about economists - who are forever reworking their theories and hardly ever agree on anything - says that if all the world's economists were laid end to end, they would never reach a conclusion.
However, in the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement, there seems to be startling unanimity among economists that NAFTA is a good thing and will benefit the United States.While politicians and special interest groups argue over the benefits or drawbacks of the proposed trade treaty, the financial experts are lining up behind NAFTA in droves.
Nearly 300 of the nation's most prominent conservative and liberal economists at major universities and think tanks recently signed a letter to President Clinton in support of the trade pact with Mexico and Canada.
While their individual calculations may vary, their conclusions are the same: NAFTA will create more jobs and economic growth in the United States than it will destroy.
Labor unions and other NAFTA critics claim the treaty will cost 550,000 jobs because manufacturers will flee to Mexico where labor is cheap and regulation lax.
But economists argue that opponents conveniently fail to tell the other half of the story: job creation due to NAFTA.
While industries that rely on low-skilled, low-wage workers may move to Mexico - as they have been doing for the past two decades without NAFTA - those jobs will be more than offset by the anticipated boom in high-skilled, better-paying jobs here at home.
The economists point out that NAFTA will improve the economic climate in Mexico as well as remove tariffs on U.S.-made goods.
That means Mexicans, who already spend more on U.S. products than some of America's biggest trading partners, will have additional income to buy more affordable U.S. goods.
Some of the United States' largest manufacturers - such as General Motors - are anticipating huge sales gains within the first year of the pact.
Just as NAFTA will have little impact on the existing low-wage job flight, it also will not alter the trends of foreign investment. The United States does not own all the world's investment capital.
In today's global economy, businesses look at many corners of the globe for investment. So it doesn't necessarily follow that a dollar invested in Mexico is a dollar not invested in the United States.
It's rare when a large number liberal and conservative economists agree on anything. Let's hope this unusual consensus on the benefits of NAFTA will silence the half-truths and misleading information coming from critics attempting to stall economic progress.