Aster,
When you don't have a good argument to make you resort to mocking the person. Hmmmmm, I remember a simpleton guy like you in my Jr. High Social Studies class. He he he.

Well, I guess, as far as your concerned, the US can just put in a bunch of Starbucks in Latin America while you sit back on your cafe chair and watch the world move on buy some simpleton thought.

Sorry, but the times and the trade groups are achangin! Get on before it's too late!

oh, and don't end with me, why don't you mock Madridman too for his views. (Boy, some people really get in the way of me trying to like Spain)

Ok, it ends with me. .. and a neutral thought...

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains...or at least that is what we hope for this year with the drought going on.

MM, can we close this thread now please?

I'm sure you're a nice person, but you've presented nothing but rumours and heresay, which don't merit much value. I doubt that such information would be dispersed through a travel message board and not have been leaked by the news media before -the EU took the better half of last century to set up, NAFTA quite a few years too, and these agreements are quite complex. My basic point, and don't take it the wrong way, is that neither you nor I have the qualifications to evaluate, in a non trivial discussion, Spain entering into a free trade agreement with the NAFTA members. Unless you work for NAFTA or the EU, then sorry and I wish you all the luck with your negotiations.

Also, your views don't really reflect an understanding of Spain or the Spanish people. The Starbucks and Franco references I didn't quite understand, and if people want to be "anti-American," that is their choice, to which you may counter their arguments, hopefully more substantially than you have in this thread, along the lines of how Wisconsin Wolf (how's that plumbing installation coming?) will do so with logical posts.

-L

Asterault,

We got the outhouse moved inside, but what do you do when the basement gets "full?" I'm still in a quandry over that!

Which reminds me (A reach here, to stay on a Spanish topic) - Are you officially in Madrid yet, or still hanging out on the beaches of Barcelona wearing sandals, a thong, and big smile? I looked at your web cam, at the office, and saw a guy with a bad hair day, named Stefan. I think he uses the same barber as I do - That can't be you! I didn't see dog hair all over him -

Wolf (Who has to head for the flea dip now, so he can quit scratching behind his ears - :o )

Ah, that's what you use for the kitchen garden -makes the tomatoes extra ripe! Even in Pennsylvania we know that. You guys are rubes!

I'm in Madrid, or more precisely I live in a town near Madrid. The cam page is out of commission as that office camera is where I no longer work, and the home cam is no longer where I live.

So how are we supposed to keep track of you without video surveillance?

At least we can follow Wolf's "movements" [I can't believe I said that] by checking with purchasing in the Departamento de Fontanería de Home Depot de Sheboygan...

Again Aster, you refuse to debate the issue. I think you don't understand Spain's future in the EU. You can keep your head in the sand as long as you want, I just hope there are enough Spaniards who DO understand the world marketplace. (come on madridman, speak up, you know what I mean about the economic positives and you know that I'm speaking both from my heart AND my head)
Even though some people on this site are anti-American and love to bash the USA, I still try to like Spain and KNOW that the clock is ticking for Spain to make a stronger presence in NAFTA. The last agreement signed was in Quebec by ALL(minus cuba) the Americas countries. Come on Spain, the EU will not in the end, take care of you.

I still have to see that anti-americanism and the bashing of the USA... 80% or more of the visitors of this site are even americans or british (with some from Sweeden, Portugal, Canada and Australia), and the rest are spaniard who, moved by the interest of exchanging points of view with americans, or just to know a little more from the american people, visit this site...

Anyway, let's center on the topic: Your only evidence is that you have heard it from a friend, haven't you?

I don't say that it is impossible (it would be even desirable from my point of view), but I think it is very very improbable. That is not the way the things are done in Spain. If tomorrow our president Aznar would say "Spain is going to leave EU and it is going to join NAFTA" then all the political parties, the trade unions, the media and the common people would call him mad.

If I was to bet, I would bet that Spain is not going to leave EU in the next years. That doesn't mean that we will not join something like NAFTA, but I don't think we will in the near future.

Would it interest the USA? No... Spain is poor compared to the US, it is not a big market for its goods, nor the handwork is cheap. Besides, would the USA want Spain to bee its backdoor for inmigration?

For Spain it would be great of course: A big big and wealthy market to which export our goods, a place where the wages are 50% higher, freedom to go there and study in the best technological colleges... A good bargain for us

Very improbable...

Fernando

Again, correct, I refuse to debate the issue. Why doesn't some board administrator bury this thread in the sand?