A group of UNM professors and a nationally-known economist will discuss free trade and current U.S. economic policy on campus today.
The discussion, titled "Equity and Efficiency in an Era of Globalization," is at 7 p.m. in Room 123 of Dane Smith Hall. It is being cosponsored by the Economics Department and the Student Organization of Latin American Studies.
A panel of UNM economic professors and guest panelist Mark Weisbrot, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., will speak at the event.
Weisbrot is an economist and author. He writes a weekly column that is distributed to more than 400 newspapers nationally.
The specialists will discuss the International Monetary Fund as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the policies and implications of the institution and agreement.
The IMF is responsible for providing third world countries with money to stabilize their economies, and NAFTA allows the United States, Canada and Mexico to trade with few restrictions.
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UNM graduate student, Joel Villarreal, who helped coordinate the discussion, says the speakers hold a variety of philosophies on the subject.
"The panel will look at the main issues behind NAFTA and the IMF and debate if they are organizations that really help underdeveloped countries with monetary loans and help them with gaining economic equality through trade," Villarreal said.
Christine Sauer, an associate professor of economics at UNM and one of the panelists, said they will discuss three questions.
"We will discuss whether or not abolishing restrictions on trade between countries would be beneficial, whether or not NAFTA promotes fair wages and whether NAFTA helps third world countries grow economically," Sauer said.
She said these questions are important to debate because they spark interest in the policies of the organizations and study of struggling countries and their citizens.
Justin Delacour, a UNM graduate who is helping to coordinate the event, says UNM students should attend the discussion because the United States is greatly affected by economic globalization.
"Students should be interested in what happens with trade and the IMF because we all know someone who could be effected by the decisions that these organizations make," Delacour said. "It is possible for companies to pay workers a lot less in underdeveloped countries and that may take away jobs from people that we know. It could really hurt the people that we care about."
