Dallas-based Centermark Theaters made the
announcement earlier this year.
It is taking Hollywood south of the border by
building 1,000 movie screens there in the
next five years.
Centermark says jobs created by NAFTA could
fill its theaters.
More jobs mean more spendable income, and it
allows more people to enjoy leisure activities
such as going to movies.
For companies like Jaffa in Richardson, NAFTA's
benefit would be more direct.
Jaffa ships satellite antennas to Mexico.
Free trade would eliminate the hefty tariffs
that Jaffa now pays.
We had one case, $50,000 worth of test equipment.
It cost us $14,000 in duties to get it into the country.
From the 51st floor of the Renaissance Tower,
lawyer David Dean sees NAFTA not only as a
benefit to businesses here, but a reason for
others to come.
Dean is an architect of this NAFTA document,
quietly given to administrations in Ottawa,
Washington and Mexico City.
The document calls for each of the NAFTA
countries to place their free trade diplomats
in a central
office or Secretariat in Dallas.
Dean says the idea is so lucrative that cities
like San Diego, Houston and San Antonio are
scrambling to compete.
If we have a secretariat in Dallas, businesses
follow that Secretariat.
Countries that need to be near that Secretariat
would locate in Dallas and use our international
aviation routes that we're promoting through
DFW airport as a base of operations.
Dean says new DFW air routes proposed for Asia
and Europe would lure businesses from
there, businesses that are worried NAFTA will
shut them out of the North American market.