{"id":5346,"date":"2017-01-31T16:39:40","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T22:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richyrocks.com\/?p=5346"},"modified":"2018-06-13T12:48:11","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T18:48:11","slug":"nafta-is-not-tlc-or-maybe-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richyrocks.com\/coolenglish\/nafta-is-not-tlc-or-maybe-it-is\/","title":{"rendered":"nafta is not tlc. or maybe it is."},"content":{"rendered":"

mexican president enrique pe\u00f1a nieto<\/strong><\/a> and new u.s. president donald trump<\/strong><\/a> were supposed to meet today\u00a0to talk about how mexico is taking advantage of<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (exploiting) the political, economic and social realationship that the two countries have. \u00a0the meeting was\u00a0cancelled after pe\u00f1a nieto unreasonably stated that mexico will not pay to build a wall on the border between the two countries, completely disregarding<\/strong><\/em> (ignoring) a\u00a0promise trump beat to death<\/strong><\/em> (said a lot of times)\u00a0during his presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

\"a
nafta seems real nice when it is presented in cartoon form.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

in addition, trump has often bitched<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(complained) about nafta<\/strong>, the twenty-three year old north american free trade agreement<\/strong> between the u.s., mexico and canada. he says it’s a terrible deal for the united states and wants to\u00a0renegotiate.<\/p>\n

while nafta has taken advantage of<\/em>\u00a0mexico’s cheap labor force and brought several low-paying manufacturing jobs to mexico that used to be well-paid \u00a0jobs in the u.s., trump’s implication that mexico has the economic or political power in the relationship is ridiculous and offensive. \u00a0mexico is more economically dependent than ever on the united states, and president trump’s aggressive position has created an uncomfortable and uncertain environment.<\/p>\n

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in mexico, any free trade agreement is usually referred to as a tlc<\/strong> (trato de libre comercio). \u00a0ironically, tlc<\/em> in english stands for tender loving care<\/strong><\/em>, a nice, possibly romantic way to treat\u00a0someone special but an inaccurate<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(wrong) expression\u00a0to describe global commerce.<\/p>\n

\"tlc<\/h6>\n
tlc: 90s popular music & fashion icons, but not a commercial agreement between nations (left to right: lisa, tionne &\u00a0chili)<\/em><\/h6>\n

tlc<\/strong> was the name of a successful 90s hip hop trio. \u00a0the band’s name\u00a0came from the names of the girls in the group, tionne<\/strong>, lisa<\/strong> and chilli<\/strong>, but it also fit<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0nicely (was a good match) with the already existing abbreviation for tender loving care. \u00a0this trailer from a\u00a0biographical movie shows that not everything in tlc’s history was totally tlc<\/em>.<\/p>\n