BY NANCY cotten HIRST
DBJ Contributing Editor

There is no doubt that there are companies throughout the United States, and indeed in Mississippi, that are benefiting from increased trade with Canada and particularly Mexico since the inception of the NAFTA trade agreement.
Mississippi's exports to Mexico have doubled, according to figures released by the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development (MDECD), from $115 million in 1997 to $332 million in 1999. Some of the companies listed on MDECD's list of businesses trading with Mexico are located in the Delta.
MDECD doesn't have, at this point, figures on how this translates into jobs, so it is difficult to tell if increased employment has resulted from this export growth or just increased profitability for the companies. The assumption would be that some limited job growth has occurred.
That is cold comfort, however, to two Delta towns who have indeed heard the "huge sucking sound" of jobs being lost to cheap "offshore" labor. In 1999 Durant (in Holmes County) lost Durant Electric, a division of KLH Industries, Inc. and along with it, at least 520 jobs. Wilburn Hooker, Director of Economic Development for Holmes County, estimates a total job loss of closer to 800.
Throughout Mississippi, KLH employed 1,135 people, all of whom lost their jobs to Delphi Automotive Systems' Mexico operations. The company, which supplied wire harnesses to Delphi and thus to GM, was forced to close when their contract wasn't renewed.
When asked about the impact of NAFTA -- good and bad -- Hooker exclaimed, "We've seen no good in Holmes County. It's been 100% bad. It cost us our largest industry. NAFTA isn't designed to help an area like this. They (the trading partners involved) take jobs that require a lot of hands-on work and that's what we need here.
"We already had an unemployment rate of 8.9 %," Hooker adds. "Now it's around 24%. These were decent jobs too, and hard to replace. We've landed four new industries since April 1, but they are in new stages and it will be a long time before they hire 800 people."
Hooker is thoroughly disgusted with the Community Adjustment and Investment Program (CAIP) that was supposedly designed to "help American communities that have suffered significant job losses as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement' -- to quote from the brochure.
Eligible communities, and Holmes County certainly qualifies, are supposed to be able to secure guaranteed loans through the North American Development Bank (NADBank) to help in efforts to create or retain jobs. "Those grants and loans are hogwash," Hooker openly declares. "We have applied three times and have been turned down every time. We even hired grant-writing specialists, who were working on a contingency basis. They even flew out there to submit one application, to make sure it made the deadline. They hand-delivered it. They have had to eat all that expense. I'll probably never be able to get them to work for us again. Anyway, no matter what the bureaucrats say, there is no relief from the government when we suffer these job losses."
Hooker does admit that NAFTA was not 100% responsible for Delphi's decision to send jobs over the border. He says that the impact of the nationwide strike against GM three years ago was so costly that they probably started looking at cost savings then. "Still, NAFTA was what made the cost savings so significant that it was feasible," he concludes.
Gene Luster, Director of the Belzoni/Humphreys Development Foundation, agrees with that assessment. "We were seeing movement offshore before NAFTA," he says, "but these recent moves have been due in no small part to NAFTA's impact. It has made it four times cheaper for companies to operate across the border and that will cover a lot of moving and start-up costs."
When asked if Humphreys County had been adversely affected by NAFTA, Luster said, "I just lost a cut and sew operation. The answer would be, "Yes, it has!" Jockey International has just gone offshore. We lost 173 jobs. With a county population of 11,500, that creates a blow to the economy that will take a long, long time to overcome. Jockey paid above average wages and provided good benefits. Yes, it will be very, very difficult to get over.
"It has basically shut our retail industry down. We have 173 with no disposable income. Jockey did everything it could to help soften the blow. They were good to the employees and gave the building and the nine acres it was on to the city.
"We have another cut and sew operation - Sherrill Enterprises - that supplies companies like Laura Ashley and Longerberger Baskets. It has grown and employs 113 people now, but we still have a long way to go," Luster continues.
"Our efforts continue to introduce industries to the possibilities in Humphreys County. We're putting together about a hundred presentation packages now. We have good people and great opportunities and people are responding to our ad campaign. The Governor's new economic development plan also has some excellent features. It makes us very competitive and gives us a better let up. Even so, we can't compete stateside with the wages in those countries, so our job is more difficult," Luster concludes.
Mark Manning, of the Delta Council, looks at both sides of the issue. "I think it's clear that NAFTA has been very good for international trade and the flow of goods back and forth from Mexico. At the same time, yes, there has been a great deal of dislocation. If it's your ox getting gored, it's very painful.
"The real situation, however, is that if we're going to compete with the Mexico's and China's, we need to do everything we can to make our business environment friendly and our regulatory environment less onerous. I think those issues figure as much in companies moving as do cheap wages."