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The North American Free Trade Agreement Essay

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The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an agreement negotiated by three countries; Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The main purpose of NAFTA is essentially to reduce trade barriers in order to promote international commerce, and open up different industries to trade, in particular textiles, agriculture, and automobile sectors. The introduction of NAFTA completely transformed North American economic relations and led to unparalleled cooperation between the U.S. Canada and Mexico. This research paper will look at the positive and negative impacts of NAFTA and examine whether or not it has been overall successful in promoting economic growth in its member nations. In order to answer this question, I will examine the effects of NAFTA on the U.S., Mexico and Canada by focusing on the macroeconomic impact of NAFTA, its influence on different economic sectors, and the dynamics of free trade between the developed economies of the U.S. and Canada and an undeveloped country, Mexico Macroeconomic Effects The formation of NAFTA put together a $19 trillion market comprised of around 470 million consumers. The large majority of economists concur that NAFTA has advanced the economies of its members. Trade in the region has increased dramatically from 1993, from around $290 billion to around $1.0 trillion in 2016 (Source). Other research into the macroeconomic impact shows improvements, such as an increase in GDP, income, foreign investments, and lowering unemployment.

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