Crystal Lake Manufacturing A NAFTA Dilemma Essay

Crystal Lake Manufacturing A NAFTA Dilemma - Essay Example The west conquest even helped in finding new places to grow broom corn as it appeared to be very fertile. This finally led to the exportation of both U.S. brooms and making equipment which today can be found worldwide. The U.S. broom industry was very successful until 1994 when foreign brooms were allowed into the U.S., duty free. The largest competitor to U.S. corn brooms is Mexico. The decision taken in 1994 lead in 1996 to a debate regarding the "invasion" of Mexico corn brooms and its disastrous effects on the U.S. broom industry (the loss of 49 jobs over 4 years). Consequently, measures were taken by the President to reinstate tariffs on Mexican corn brooms to give time to the domestic industry to implement adjustments to foreign competition. The main differences raised by this dispute inside NAFTA are the production processes used by both industries. On one hand in 1995, 84 per cent of broom corn brooms were produced using the wire-wound process, which is a very labor intensive process and requires skilled craftsmen. The learning of such a technique in order to be fully proficient may require several years. The other 16 per cent were produced using the nailed-machine method, an automation of the broom production process. The wire-wound process using corn broom is the production process used in crystal Lake Manufacturing.