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Nafta Essay

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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, …show more content…

This is done to attract manufacturing of goods in Mexico. “The U.S. tariff schedule provision known as 9802, formerly known as 806/807, greatly assisted the development of the Maquiladoras industry. This permitted U.S. goods to be exported to Mexico and face a duty only on the value added when the finished product is imported back into the United States”. In 1996 40% of all Mexican exports to the U.S. were from the Maquiladora program. Also the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce conceived a group named “Transformation 2000”, whom would inform and educate all manufactures on the Maquiladora programs by the year 2001”.

The Maquiladora program has also been an integral part in the rapid growth of the Mexico-U.S. border region. The U.S.-Mexico border separates four U.S. states (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas) and six Mexican states (Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas). These are all called the twin cities, although the border politically separates them they share common air sheds and drainage basins. Seventy percent of all Maquiladoras are located in the border region of Mexico. “Over 1,600 Maquiladora plants in the border area employ over 510,000 workers, about half of which are located in the two biggest Mexican border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez”. There was a 13% growth in Maquiladora employment in the border region, within the interior of Mexico it was actually 28 %. At

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