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| N |B ER _ To get a feel for the size of this undertaking you have to take a close look at the numbers involved. The total population of Canada, the United States and Mexico is 363 million. The total gross domestic product is over $6.4 trillion â€" that represents about 30 per cent of the total world trade. When you get into numbers this big you‘re bound to hear a lot of criticism. And there is. The European Economic Community is very concerned that the new North America will provide protectionist trading within North America. This may effectively lock out the Europeans. But can anyone honestly say that many of our lower skilled jobs were going to permanently stay in Canada? Or was it just a matter of time before the job moved to low cost labor markets such as the Pacific Rim? NAFTA â€" the North American Free Trade Agreement is about to come into being. The world has watched and the world has criticized. NAFTA will merge three economies: the U.S. and Canada, wellâ€"established and rich countries, will be joined by Mexico, a poor but rapidly growing country with tremendous potential. For more than 14 months, Canadian Trade Minister Michael Wilson, U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills and Mexican Commerce Secretary Jaime Serra have been carving out an historic trade agreement. Despite having lost some jobs to the U.S. (and elsewhere) and while we have all been plowing through this global economic recession, the Canadian operations of U.S. multinational corporations actually had a net increase in the number of jobs since Free Trade went into effect. Our own labor leaders criticize that thousands of jobs will disappear to Mexico, where hourly wages are about $1.80 compared to $16 here. Of course, we Canadians hear so much criticism of our own Free Trade Agreement with the States that it‘s hard to approach NAFTA without concern. NAFTA will eliminate 20,000 separate tariffs between Canada, U.S. and Mexico over the next 10 to 15 years. And nonâ€" tariff barriers like dairy and cotton quotas along with special import licenses will also be eliminated. These moves are expected to jump start capital investments in the three countries. NAFTA will not improve our economy overnight. Nor will it please everyone. It will, however, result in structural changes to the economic base of the three countries. Remember that these changes are due to competition which is being experienced globally. NAFTA will create a large trading block of three neighboring countries. l â€" o My hope for NAFTA is that it forms the basis of a solid economy that can provide economic security and wellâ€"being for this and future generations of North Americans. There are a lot of hopes and fears driected on the more than 100 negotiators based in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. And the Asian markets, traditionally a source cheap offshore labor, are concerned that North America will now use Mexico as its source of cheap labor. Canada will benefit from North American free trade deal Pattie Moran is a Corporate Banker in Kitchener. The 220â€"acre park, which also features such outdoor activities asgo carting, batting cages, water actitivies and mini golf, saw an increase in the indoor recreationâ€" al activity of rollerskating. "Let‘s face it, we‘re not going to break any records this year, but "It‘s the kind of situation where you try to plan the best that you can, but you don‘t plan on the entire month of July to be rained out." Bingeman Park‘s marketing manager Brian Banks reflected many of the same feelings of Hutcheson, but noted that park camping figures are almost right on target. "We‘re hoping for a drought this August," Banks said. SportsWorld, which also feaâ€" tures an indoor driving range, batting cages and an arcade, saw its business fall 12 per cent below its projections, which says Hutchâ€" eson, isn‘t bad considering the poor weather. When the outdoor activities, such as goâ€"carting, mini golfing and water activities, closed because of rain or cold temperatures, she noted that the indoor activities escalated. "We‘re not in too bad of shape. The Civic Holiday weekend activâ€" ities were up and we‘re going into August optimistically. The tourism business in Ontarâ€" io was bracing for a lean year due to the recession, but area operaâ€" tors had no way of preparing for the amount of rain that fell in the area during July. According to SportsWorld Inc.‘s Leslie Hutcheson, nobody could have been prepared for the rainy weather. We planned the economic foreâ€" cast, but not the weather. Who could have," Hutcheson said. Amusement parks featuring miniâ€"golf, driving ranges, water park attractions and goâ€"cart tracks have felt the brunt of July‘s above average 158 mm of rainfall and below average tempâ€" eratures â€"â€" a record average of 17 degrees celsius â€" and are gearing up for what could be a make it or break it August and September. Area amusement parks, which took a bath in July, are hoping for a drought this August to help them recover some of their losses suffered during the first part of the summer, Pete Cudhea Chronicle Staff Bringing your message home â€" 886â€"2830 With rainfall almost every secâ€" ond or third day and almost every weekend, Nafzinger admits that August is going to be a makeâ€"itâ€" orâ€"breakâ€"it month for the family business of 33 vears. And while this season looks grim on the surface, he recalled how bad business was two years ago when it rained 30 of the 35 we‘re hoping to get a hot spell in August and have it run into September." Don Nafzinger is also hoping for drier days ahead as well. Nafzinger, owner of Erbsville Kartway, admits that his busiâ€" ness has been closed as much as it has been open so far this season. "Everybody‘s _ hurting _ and something has got to give," he said. "Half of my business is on weekends, and lately, weekends haven‘t been too great." Erbsville Kartway owner Don Nafzinger, fed up with the rain, is hoping for a drier August. P aloal WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1992 â€" PAGE 25 ‘"This is our first full year of operations and I can‘t say if we‘re up 30 per cent or down 30 per cent, but I‘m assuming we‘re down not only because of the weather, but the recession as well." Brill said Brill admitted that traffic ume is down because of weather, but with the first v of August being drier and wai than July, he‘s hoping that t ness will pick up. He‘s not al According to manager Peter Brill, the rain and cool weather is not &# welcome sight for the centre, which opened late last summer. For the Gus Maue Golf Centre. located on King Street W. just outside of Waterloo, its first vear of operation hasn‘t been a memoâ€" rable one. summer weekends Pete Cudhes photo IS] 1€r 1€