The Free Trade Agreement

In 1987, Mulroney opened up negotiations that would eventually lead to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Canada and United States. The FTA was signed on October 4th, 1987 in hopes of improving trade transactions between the two countries (see fig2).

Talks about a free trade agreement between North American countries were already being discussed prior the North American Free Trade Agreement. Beginning in 1985, President Reagan and the Canadian Prime Minister, Mulroney, exchanged letters of resolution to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement. This FTA would then be drafted, ratified, and eventually enacted in January 1989 between the two countries. At the same time, trade was at an all-time high between Canada and Mexico. So much so that a

Studies have found that about 75 percent of job creation in Canada was due to the FTA (Tilson). Furthermore, one in four jobs in Canada have been tied to international trade (Quinlan, 326). As a result, today, about 5.2 million Canadian jobs depend on trade with the United States (Tilson). Moving on, imports and exports have increased drastically since the FTA took effect in 1989. According to the United States Census Bureau, Canadian imports had increased by 9.6 percent within the first year and an astonishing 23.3 percent in a matter of four years from 1988. Exports had also increased 7.7 percent within the first year and 19.1 percent within four years (United States). One major impact as a result of the Free Trade Debate was also the successor to the FTA which was the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA was basically an upgraded version of the FTA which incorporated Mexico into the North American trading bloc. Established on 1 January 1994, NAFTA created a trading market of about 370 million people (Wilkinson). Although this was only 8 percent of the world’s population, it controlled about 31 percent of the world’s wealth (Quinlan, 323).

Since the beginning of civilization, trade has been an important issue. Christopher Columbus sailed to the Americas in search of a faster and safer trade route to India. We as Americans fought for our independence over trade related issues, such as tariffs and rules on with whom we were allowed to export and import goods. Our people have always fought for the rights and ability to buy and sell what they want at a reasonable price. The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, is yet another attempt at this. NAFTA was signed on December 17, 1992 and put into effect on January 1, 1994 (SICE). It is a trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. This paper will explain all the finer points of the agreement, its

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a treaty between Canada, Mexico, and the

NAFTA also realized that it would be better for their economy if they produce there on agriculture than buying it from Mexico, since we can mass produce it. One downside to NAFTA is that Mexico has cheaper labor laws so it is easier for them to make new businesses than it would be to make the same business in the US. This can also lead to shipping problems and increased accidents when they are transporting goods over the border. The upside to these problems is that they can be fixed by both countries if it becomes to much of a problem. Once these problems are fixed they will continue to progress at achievemore in their tariffs and economy.

Most people from Mexico, just like in Veracruz, lived a simple life. Their means of income was through farming, so obviously this was their bread and butter, but not until when NAFTA, the North America Free Trade Agreement, was implemented between the United States, Mexico, and Canada (The Other Side of Immigration). Urrea states “you’d think that at least there would be beans to eat, but the great Mexican bean-growing industrial farms sold much of their crop to the United States” (45). Since then, most Mexicans, especially those people from Veracruz, was affected. Even though the primary reason for this agreement was to eliminate trade and investment barriers between Canada, U.S., and Mexico to make produce less expensive, this brought a

To ask why Canada entered the 1988 free trade agreement with the United States of America is to ask a complicated question that is likely to garner a different answer from each respondent. The best that one can do when analyzing the multitude of components that led to this agreement is to eliminate any pre-conceived notions that they may hold about liberalized trade, and attempt to objectively assess the issues that this country faced in the years leading up to 1988. Free trade between Canada and the US is likely one of the most contentious issues that our country has ever faced. This becomes apparent when studying Canadian history throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Canadian economic development has flourished, and been stunted, as a

By joining this free trade agreement, Canada has been able to increase its trade with the US and Mexico. Two decades after the implementation of NAFTA, total merchandise trade between Canada and the US more than doubled at an annualized growth rate of 4.4%. During the same period, Canada 's merchandise exports to Mexico also increased  almost seven fold, and its trade with Mexico equaled $31 billion alone in the year 2012. Furthermore, a study completed by the Fraser Institute pointed out

Ordinary Americans that were in support of the NAFTA agreement did not receive the benefits that were promised for the economy. Former President Bill Clinton said in his speech, “For 20 years the wages of the bottom 60 percent of our work force, more or less, have been stagnant as people work harder for the same or lower wages.” Therefore, he introduced the NAFTA agreement, in which he stated would “unite Canada, Mexico, and the United States in a huge trading block which will enable us to grow and move together”. Thus, allowing the creation of more jobs and higher incomes in the economy.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), an agreement signed by three countries in creating rules in trade in North America. NAFTA, when being presented, was described as genuine for helping Mexico and Canada. But was NAFTA really helpings those counties or really just helping North America? Initially North America was being genuine about NAFTA when talking to Mexico and Canada but in reality the NAFTA caused some uneven development as the years went by.

The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, is an accordance between the United States, Mexico, and Canada that was put into effect in January 1994. This agreement was unprecedented because it integrated three countries that were at extremely different levels of economic development. It changed the economic relationship between North American countries and encouraged trade and investment among the three countries to grow considerably.

It is important to note, however, that Mexico’s struggling economy is not entirely the result of it’s own actions. On January 1, 1994, a trade deal promoted by US President Bill Clinton was put into effect. The North American Free Trade Deal (NAFTA) intended to “unite” the economies of Canada, the US, and Mexico by diminishing trade barriers between them, adding jobs and lessening the wage gap between Mexico and the US. The first major disaster of NAFTA occurred when heavily subsidized US corn saturated the Mexican market

NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, is the largest free market agreement in the world. It includes the US, Canada, and Mexico, and was put in place on January 1, 1994 (Inc.com). The agreement was signed by US President Bill Clinton, Mexican President Carlos Salinas, and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (Sergie, 2014). Its purpose was to do away with tariff barriers between the three nations on goods and services, remove international investment restrictions, and protect intellectual property rights (Inc.com). However, many economists postulate that NAFTA has been a major cause of the decrease in US manufacturing.

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: