美国国家公共电台 NPR Buffalo Area Warily Eyes The Renegotiation Of NAFTA

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Canada may have more to lose, but there are American businesses that are also worried about losing NAFTA. Across the country and the border, Jim Zarroli visited Buffalo¹, N.Y., where NAFTA has created jobs in areas that were economically depressed².

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE³: At Speed Global Services, workers carry goods around the vast warehouse⁴ floor using motorized hand trucks. The company started out in trucking more than 70 years ago, carrying goods around western New York. As manufacturing slowed, it turned to warehousing. Today, Speed Global stores and transports products such as bras and lighting⁵ fixtures⁶ around North America, products made in China and Mexico. Company President Carl Savarino says it mostly works for Canadian companies.

CARL SAVARINO: We send now probably around eight trucks a day to Canada. And that's just going in the greater Toronto Area. It's the largest population in Canada. And it's 90 miles away. So there's a lot of goods moving back and forth⁷.

ZARROLI: Savarino says it wouldn't be possible without NAFTA. Buffalo was once filled with great, hulking manufacturing plants. Richard Lipsitz of the Buffalo AFL-CIO says many of the jobs are now gone.

RICHARD LIPSITZ: We've lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the industrial workforce⁸. This was the third-largest manufacturing city in North America - Buffalo, N.Y., was.

ZARROLI: Lipsitz says many of the jobs fled to low-wage countries decades ago. And NAFTA accelerated the process. Buffalo has adjusted by taking advantage of its border location. NAFTA has connected Buffalo to a web of international commerce. John Manzella heads the World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara.

JOHN MANZELLA: You can be a buyer or a seller right here in western New York. You can jump in your car, visit a facility or a supplier or buyer in Hamilton, work out a deal and be back here for dinner. And that's the beauty of this relationship.

ZARROLI: And that's been a lifeline for companies such as Niagara Transformer. The company makes large devices that help regulate the flow of electricity. They take months to build. CEO John Darby says, before NAFTA, Canadian companies didn't like to do business with U.S. companies like his.

JOHN DARBY: Many customers would be worried, for example, that maybe the duties would change. Maybe the taxes would change at the border. So the economic calculation that they did perhaps might not be in effect when that transformer arrives at the border.

ZARROLI: NAFTA has changed that. Darby now has large Canadian energy companies and utilities as customers. He buys specialty⁹ steel from an Ontario mill, and he employs Canadians under a special visa program. Mechanical engineer Eric Pelzer (ph) commutes¹¹ from Ontario every day.

ERIC PELZER: When I first started working over here, they all - you know, I said, well, yeah, I work in the States. They go, work in the States? How can you do that? But now everybody - there's so many more people that work over here. So they commute¹⁰ back and forth and work in different places.

ZARROLI: For companies such as Niagara Transformer, the prospect¹² that NAFTA could be renegotiated is a huge concern. Fifty-six-year-old Craig Duncan has worked at one manufacturing plant after another. One company moved to Ohio. Another was sold. Today, Duncan operates a computerized machine that customizes steel parts at Niagara Transformer. He's been there 15 years.

CRAIG DUNCAN: I've been put out of work before by other factories. Hopefully, you know, we don't lose business because of change in trade agreements. Something like that would affect me directly.

ZARROLI: But the AFL-CIO's Richard Lipsitz sees rewriting NAFTA as a chance to reverse some of the worst trends in manufacturing employment.

LIPSITZ: We're concerned that the renegotiation of trade packages be done on a fair basis, not on the, quote, "free" basis. It isn't just a question of capital moving more easily, but it's also a question of labor¹³ rights.

ZARROLI: Lipsitz says this is an especially big problem with Mexico. After NAFTA, many of the best jobs fled south of the border, where pay is much lower and worker rights are limited. The question is whether those concerns can be addressed without also hurting the Canadian trade that keeps Buffalo going. Jim Zarroli, NPR News.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The NAFTA negotiations¹⁴ will continue into next year. And Canada is now talking tough and continues to eye other markets like China. Later in the show, we'll take a look at a planned pipeline¹⁵ expansion meant to increase Canada's oil exports to Asia.

1 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

2 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

5 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

6 fixtures   

（房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动

参考例句：

• The insurance policy covers the building and any fixtures contained therein. 保险单为这座大楼及其中所有的设施保了险。
• The fixtures had already been sold and the sum divided. 固定设备已经卖了，钱也分了。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

9 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

10 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

11 commutes   

上下班路程( commute的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She commutes from Oxford to London every day. 她每天上下班往返于牛津与伦敦之间。
• Barbara lives in Oxford and commutes. 芭芭拉住在牛津，通勤往来。

12 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

13 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

14 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

15 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。