November 17, 1993: The North American Free Trade Agreement

President Bill Clinton signs NAFTA into law. Behind him, left to right:

Vice President Al Gore, House Minority Leader Bob Michel,

House Speaker Tom Foley.

November 17, 1993: The North American Free Trade Agreement is ratified by the U.S. House of Representatives. Its ratification by the U.S. Senate was a foregone conclusion, and President Bill Clinton had already indicated that he would sign it. It took effect on January 1, 1994.

NAFTA had been negotiated by his predecessor, George H.W. Bush; Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada; and President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico. But, by the time it became law, Bush and Mulroney were already out of office.

Oddly, both of America's major parties were split on the issue. Some Democrats opposed it because they thought it was anti-union. Some Republicans opposed it because it wasn't protectionist and they thought it affected American sovereignty.

Three living former Presidents lobbied for it: Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, both still alive and in active public life, if not active politics, also supported it, but took no action. Carter was a Democrat, the rest were Republicans.

Both parties' House leaders, Tom Foley of Washington and Bob Michel of Illinois, wanted it. So did both parties' Senate leaders, George Mitchell of Maine and Bob Dole of Kansas. This was significant, because Dole was considered the front-runner to be the next Republican nominee for President. Indeed, he was nominated, and so free trade was hardly an issue in the 1996 election.

Not that Ross Perot, the independent candidate from 1992 who got 19 percent of the popular vote, didn't try. He was opposed to it, and used his regular appearances on CNN's Live with Larry King to talk about how bad he thought it would be. With Clinton's permission, Vice President Al Gore challenged to Perot to a debate on the issue, on King's show. The consensus was that this was a huge mistake: Gore was often mocked as "stiff," while Perot would practically be on his home turf.

It was a mismatch -- the other way. Knowing that Perot was famous for bringing charts with graphs on them, Gore brought his own, and explained his cause very well. Perot was caught off-guard, realizing that someone knew this issue better than he did, and got, to use a word Gore would later use on Bush's son, snippy. Public opinion began to turn in favor of the agreement.

NAFTA created millions of jobs, so, like welfare reform, it worked very well while the economy was good. But, also like welfare reform, it worked very poorly when the economy has been bad.

In 2018, the countries involved reached an agreement to replace NAFTA with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and ratified it 2 years later, so that it took effect on July 1, 2020, replacing NAFTA. The new law involved only small changes. My guess is, Donald Trump wanted to pander to American workers and claim a law he had nothing to do with, but still listed America first.

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November 17, 1993 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 7 games in the NBA that night:

* The New York Knicks lost to the San Antonio Spurs, 95-90 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Boston Celtics, 105-100 at the Boston Garden.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 92-90 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 117-104 at the USAir Arena (formerly the Capital Centre) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. Don McLean of the Bullets led all scorers on the night with 38 points.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Sacramento Kings, 130-113 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Miami Heat, 115-111 at the Miami Arena.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Orlando Magic, 98-92 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

And there were 7 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Ottawa Senators, 8-1 at the Ottawa Civic Center (now TD Place Arena).

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-0 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins beat their New England neighbors, the Hartford Whalers, 4-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-3 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 4-3 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).

* And the New York Rangers, the Calgary Flames, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Florida Panthers, the Los Angeles Kings, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Quebec Nordiques, the St. Louis Blues, the San Jose Sharks, the Vancouver Canucks and the Washington Capitals were not scheduled.