The "giant sucking sound" was United States Presidential candidate Ross Perot's colorful phrase for what he believed would be the negative effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he opposed. The phrase, coined during the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, referred to the sound of U.S. jobs heading south for Mexico should the proposed free-trade agreement go into effect.

Perot ultimately lost the election, and the winner, Bill Clinton, supported NAFTA, which went into effect on January 1, 1994.

The phrase has since come into general use to describe any situation involving loss of jobs, or fear of a loss of jobs, particularly by one nation to a rival. For example:

• A European Union representative spoke of worrying "about the giant sucking sound from Eastern Europe;"^[1]
• An op-ed writer opined that "the Mexicans... are hearing 'the giant sucking sound' in stereo these days—from China in one ear and India in the other.^[2]
• A columnist used the phrase "That Giant Sucking Sound" to introduce a comment about a 34% slump in employment in the U.S. airline industry. ^[3]
• Congressman Steve LaTourette (R-OH 14) invoked the catchphrase while criticizing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: "Well, today there's another sucking sound going on in Washington, D.C. And that's the tightening of sphincters on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as people are having to explain who put into the stimulus bill this provision of law."^[4]

[edit] See also

• Globalization
• List of political catch phrases
• NAFTA's impact on US employment
• Nearshoring
• Offshoring
• Outsourcing

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The New York Times transcript of the second (October 15, 1992) Clinton-Bush-Perot Presidential Debate
  • The Commission on Presidential Debates and PBS transcribed "job-sucking sound"
• The Commission on Presidential Debates transcript of the third (October 19, 1992) Clinton-Bush-Perot Presidential Debate