Essay on Who Did NAFTA Benefit The Most?

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has boosted the US economy growth by introducing free trade with Mexico and Canada. Since, after the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, US have experienced several favourable outcomes. The imports and exports of agricultural goods, electronic equipment, machinery, automobiles, drugs, oil and minerals have been increased among the NAFTA countries thus giving rise to total profits. The agreement has also contributed in eliminating the unemployment in United States and has controlled inflation rates. NAFTA bloc has also created number of job opportunities in the country. Moreover, the consumer prices have been decreased and income levels of US citizens have been raised due to reduced tariffs and taxes. This paper will discuss the facts and figures since 1993 and show how United States has achieved benefits with NAFTA agreement.

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) inception, an abundance of controversy and disagreements have surrounded it. For example, in the 2008 election, both Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton wanted to renegotiate or get out of NAFTA. Similarly, the 2016 election featured Donald Trump campaigning for the renegotiation of NAFTA. He even stated in a recent presidential debate, “…[NAFTA] was one of the worst things to ever happen to the manufacturing industry” (Bloomberg, 2016). Are these important political figures justified in their statements and campaign goals? This essay will explore the background of NAFTA as well as both its the positive and negative effects in order to determine whether NAFTA has had a net positive

Higher tariffs with Mexico or Canada would result in the loss of jobs for all three nations. Many of the products put together in the United States such as automobiles are started in Mexico. If the NAFTA was repeal or changed the economic effect would be felt in all three nations. The supply chain would be disrupted since many products started in one nation, and finished in another. In addition, if NAFTA was dissolve or even change it could result in higher tariffs for imports for both Canada and Mexico. However, no country would have an advantage since jobs and disruptions of the supply would occur in both country. Some of those jobs could in theory go back to America, but higher labor costs would weigh on profits of U.S. companies

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.

Since the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties, there has been a surge in the creation of trade agreements all over the world. The one encompassing the largest area and affecting the greatest number of people is the North American Free Trade Agreement (Text of the NAFTA, Organization of American States). The three major countries of North America signed this regional trade agreement in 1993: Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The North American Free Trade Agreement or the NAFTA, as it became popularly called, was an effort that was initiated by the United States. At first, there existed the CFTA agreement between the United States and Canada. Later the U.S.

Clearly NAFTA is a highly debated topic because of the ambiguous effects it has had on the US economy. Brent Snavely questions NAFTA in his article published in the Detroit Free Press by pointing out that “the US lost more than 670,000 jobs as a direct result of NAFTA between 1993 and 2010,” he also explains that NAFTA has been blamed for the “manufacturing job losses and plant closures as the auto industry spent billions to build assembly plants and parts in Mexico,” it seems that one of the main issues is that jobs and money has been lost because of NAFTA. NAFTA “provided for liberalization of trade in agriculture, textiles, and automobile manufacturing.” On the contrary, Bruce does highlight some of NAFTA’s positive attributes such as: after NAFTA the “total goods traded with Mexico and Canada – imports and exports combined – grew from $291 billion in 1993 to $1.1 trillion in 2016 which is a 267% increase,” this increase in trade “has benefited the US economy and created jobs in other industries.” Either way, Canada and Mexico have agreed to renegotiate NAFTA, which took two years to agree upon, in order to reduce the US trade deficit in a fair way that still allows for an improved market access between the US, Canada, and Mexico and are attempting to come to a conclusion within the next seven

The North American Free Trade Agreement, also known as NAFTA, is an economic treaty between Mexico, Canada, and the United States that went into effect on 1 January 1994. What this treaty consists of is eliminating trade tariffs on imported and exported goods, between these three states; making this the world’s largest free trade agreement. NAFTA also eliminated trade barriers opening borders between these states.

The North American Free Trade Agreement, otherwise known as NAFTA, was placed into force on the first day of January in the year of 1994(Gov't of CA/US/MX). The agreement without doubt connected more businesses and economic growth into the following countries that have access to the agreement, including Canada, United States and Mexico (Canada International Global Affairs). From the following research conducted by multiple certified Canadian sources, they have proved that Canada’s prosperity has grown and created diverse and deeper commitments with the rest of North America (Canada International Global Affairs). Over the past few decades that NAFTA has been introduced in, they have had an excellent and positive effect on the Canadian economy.

First, a benefit of NAFTA is that it cemented strong relationships among the three countries, which has important foreign policy implications. Under NAFTA, the United States, Canada, and Mexico become a single, giant, integrated market of almost 400 million people with $6.5 trillion worth of goods and services annually. In a speech by Bill Clinton, he explains how the implications of NAFTA would be profitable. “NAFTA will tear clown trade barriers between our three nations. It will create the world's largest trade zone and create 200,000 jobs in this country by 1995 alone” (Remarks on the Signing of NAFTA, 1993). It spawned economical gain and encouraged trade among the three nations. NAFTA is the largest trading block of its kind with a surplus of job opportunities rising especially in Canada and Mexico. Another reason NAFTA proved successful was the rise of exports, and decrease in protection. Export jobs are increasing far faster than any jobs that may have moved overseas; we want to have more jobs here and the way to do that is to increase our exports. Bush responds with his reasoning to his justification of exports. “Well, Carole, the thing that saved us in this global economic slowdown is in our exports. And what I'm trying to do is increase our exports” (Presidential debate in Richmond, 1992). This quote shows how the integration of NAFTA, free and fair trade, is the best option to go

The North american Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), established in 1994, is an economic agreement, whose primary goal is to eliminate subsidies and trade barriers for national industries between The United states, Mexico, and Canada. The organizational structure of NAFTA was originally intended to have more advantages and positive outcomes, than negative effects on these three countries, but many factors have caused NAFTA to lean more towards the negative impacts it has had.   Although the organization undoubtedly succeeded their main goals, controversy has come up about how NAFTA has impacted the U.S and Canada negatively, regarding employment and wages. Industries are facing harmful disturbances as they lose market shares, because of competition

The US can now import quality automobiles and parts from Canada and Mexico for cheaper prices. Even though there is a trade deficit in the US, it is a lot lower than it was before NAFTA. This free trade agreement was a boost to large companies as well as smaller companies. Because of increased shale production here in the US, as well as cheaper oil imports from Mexico, prices of goods and services have dropped, resulting in lower prices all around. Transportation costs have dropped as a results. Also, exports of agriculture, specifically to Mexico, has increased nearly 500% from 1993-2012. Not only has the production of agricultural items fell, but the transporting of them has. The US exports more to Mexico and Canada than the other top 6 export countries combined. Canada has also experienced an economic growth, much like the US has. Of the three countries, Canada experienced a GDP per person faster than the other two countries (The Economist,

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,

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an agreement between Mexico, Canada and the United States to ultimately help North America to become a stronger and more developed continent within the global market. The agreement, which was signed on December 17, 1992, and went into effect on January 1, 1994, was aimed to eliminate the barriers to trade between the three countries. With any legal agreement, there are pros and cons. Many of the cons that surround the North American Free Trade Agreement deal with working conditions and/or the environment. Many factories were relocated, numerous people lost their jobs, many Mexican farmers/farms were overtaken by government-subsidized U.S. farms, as well as an increase in pollution that

On January 1st, 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement, commonly referred to as NAFTA, went into effect after years of contentious battle and debate amongst those drafting it and viewing it from afar. In fact, it took three U.S. Presidents to finally complete the deal: Reagan, Bush Sr., and ultimately, Clinton. Those who opposed it warned of vanishing industries, skyrocketing unemployment, and of unfair consequences to those that were less educated. Ross Perot famously stated, “ giant sucking sound” of jobs leaving the United States would be heard. On the other hand, those in favor argued for that there would be an increase in global competitiveness, export revenue, and plenty of new jobs created. Twenty years later, it is important

NAFTA was signed on 17 December 1992 between Canada, Mexico and the United States, though not coming into effect until January 1994. It was, and still is, one of the most successful trade agreements in history and has contributed to significant increases in trade and investment between the three countries ("Naftanow", 2012). The purpose of NAFTA was to remove various trade barriers between its members to allow for more beneficial trade agreements. NAFTA has demonstrated how free trade can increase wealth and competitiveness, delivering real benefits to families, farmers,