Maquiladoras And NAFTA

After 27 months of negotiation, the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trade agreement between the three north American countries: Canada, United States, and Mexico, was put into effect on January 1st 1994. NAFTA was developed to increase trade among the three north American countries while simultaneously promoting each countries’ economy growth. However, the United States faces a new government, and President Trump believes that NAFTA should be renegotiated to modernize the trade agreement instead of removing U.S participation. Some of these renegotiations, include: Trade in goods, Investment, Digital Trade, Cross-Border Data Flows, Government Procedure, etc, take into account the changes in the economy since 1994. This new

“It is important to realize that NAFTA is not the opening up of Mexico,” said Jonathan Heath, a Mexico City economist. “The opening up of Mexico had occurred before NAFTA. NAFTA is the consolidation of that opening up and what it really represents is the locking in of trade liberalization for Mexico.”

In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted between two industrial countries and a yet still developing nation. This was an agreement that was the first of its kind due to the relationship that the countries had and the investment opportunities that it presented. The United States, Canada, and developing Mexico decided to work towards eliminating most tariffs and non-tariff barriers between the three in order to increase the flow of trade in goods and services. Since its enactment NAFTA has led to the providing of over 40 million more jobs throughout the countries, and it has also tripled merchandise trade between the three participants to an astounding $946 billion USD in 2008 (NAFTA Now). However even then it is still not very clear whether enacting NAFTA was worth the time and effort and in fact the United States may have been better off not having joined NAFTA.

America’s economy is flat lining. We are bleeding jobs and hemorrhaging revenue. One out of every seven citizens is on financial life support and our government needs to do something stat. One of the first steps in the road to recovery is repealing the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, because it is dangerous to our economic stability and future.

Maquiladoras are factories in Mexico that are foreign-owned and their products do to countries outside Mexico. The maquiladora addressed in the paper by Morales et al., (2012) refers to a chemical plant in the city of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. This city borders El Paso, Texas (2012, p.1). This plant called “Solvay” (p. 5) is a large producer of hydrofluoric acid (p. 6). This acid is used by countries all around the world for the productions of pharmaceuticals, high-octane gasoline, and refrigerants (p. 6). This acid is corrosive and toxic. The fumes from this acid can “be fatal” (p.10). Although Solvay is located in Mexico it does not provide much to the community except low-skilled labour and an increase in exports (p.8). In other words, a large part of the benefits are taken by the multinational company who owns the plant and the locals are set to take on most of the risk.

When NAFTA was created, no one really understood the impact that the measure would have on the world economy. Drilling down, NAFTA impacts put Mexican farmers out of business due to the “government-subsidized U.S. Farm products.” (Source: https://www.thebalance.com/disadvantages-of-nafta-3306273) As described in the New York Times, exports from the US to Mexico of “corn and other staples” that were subsidized on average of $20,000 per year by the US Government, resulted in “small farmers finding themselves unable to make a living. Some two million have been forced to leave their farms since Nafta.” (Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/11/24/what-weve-learned-from-nafta/under-nafta-mexico-suffered-and-the-united-states-felt-its-pain

After a lengthy negotiation of over 3 years, Canada, the United States, and Mexico reached an agreement on trilateral trade ― the North American Free Trade Agreement. Commonly referred to as NAFTA, it came into effect on the first day of 1994. Covering 450 million of population and reaching $17 trillion in combined GDP, NAFTA proudly ranks the first among the world’s free trade agreements (USTR). It is usually seen as a remarkable success for the countless benefits it brings to its members. Some of NAFTA’s main advantages are promoting closer relationships, eliminating trade barriers, and increasing market opportunities. However, as the first proposer of NAFTA, the United States has indeed benefited the most from it in several different

The North American Free Trade Agreement, commonly known as the NAFTA, is a trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico launched to enable North America to become more competitive in the global marketplace (Amadeo, 2011). The NAFTA is regarded as “one of the most successful trade agreements in history” for its impact on increases in agricultural trade and investment among the three contracting nations (North American Free Trade Agreement, 2011). Supporters and opponents of the NAFTA have argued the effects of the agreement on participating nations since its inception; yet, close examination proves that NAFTA has had a relatively positive impact on the economies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

When countries have needs but not the capacity to satisfy those demands they enter into trading through the exchange of surplus, produce to help their trading partners. Canada, Mexico, and the United States created a treaty to establish a relationship that can benefit everyone in this process known as NAFTA. This agreement has been criticized and has been blamed for hurting the US economy more than helping. Although speculations may be misguided, I do not know much about this agreement, and I must research multiple sources. This paper seeks to understand if NAFTA has produced significant benefits for Canada, Mexico, and the United States economies.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a trilateral agreement between Canada, United State, and Mexico signed on December 17,1992. This agreement came into force on January 1,1994 superseding the Canada-United State free trade Agreement signed on January 2, 1988. NAFTA was the most comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) at the time and was served as a template for other FTA around the world. This agreement was controversial due to the participation of two wealthy developed countries and one developing country. Proponents to this agreement argued that NAFTA would create thousands of jobs and reduce the income disparity in the region. Opponents believed that companies would move production to Mexico due to the lower cost of

There is no easy solution to solve the problems of undocumented immigration between the United States and Mexico. The United States has no control on what other countries do and how they treat their people. If Mexico isn’t looking out for their people they will continue to migrate. United States has been the country where help is given and Mexico is very poor so they come here looking for the American dream. The North American Free Trade (NAFTA) Agreement’s history began in 1980.It’s purpose is to help with reduce trading costs, increase business investments in Mexico, Canada and United States. In 1984, Congress passed the Trade

While on the surface it seems that a free trade area would always be a

The North American Free Trade Agreement or as its most commonly known NAFTA “is a comprehensive rules-based agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico”, that came into effect on January 1,1994. All three countries signed it in December of 1992; later on November of 1993 it was ratified by the United States congress. NAFTA was not only used in cutting down on tariffs between both countries but it also help deal with issues such as Transportation, Border Issues, and Environmental Issues between these two countries. NAFTA changed some tariffs immediately and within fifteen years other tariffs will fall to zero. NAFTA was not created to just lower tariffs it was also created to open protected sectors in agriculture, energy,

What emerged from these back-room dealings was a monumentally flawed agreement. On the issue of job creation, the central focus of pro-NAFTA campaigning, it is fair to measure NAFTA's real-life results against its supporters' expansive promises of hundreds of thousands of new, high paying U.S. jobs. However, even measured against more lenient "do no harm" standard, NAFTA has been a failure. Consider this recent opinion poll of Americans on NAFTA's performance:

It has been ten years since the signature of the NAFTA agreement among Canada, U.S., and Mexico. For Mexico, this was a decisive step away from a protectionism model toward a