The North American Free Trade Agreement Created A Free Trade Zone Between Canada
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an international agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States that creates a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. NAFTA aims to eliminate all tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investment between the United States, Canada and Mexico. In 1984, Congress passed the Trade and Customs Act, which gave the president quick power to negotiate free trade agreements. He only allowed Congress to approve or disapprove of Congress, and he could not change the negotiating points. It is clear that NAFTA continues to improve political views on globalization and free trade in general. Opposition to NAFTA has intensified, making it much more politically difficult to adopt other similar free trade agreements. This became clear in the summer of 2005, when the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) stopped in Congress because of a lack of support. Two journalists, Dawn Gilbertson and Jonathan J. Higuera, who wrote in the Arizona Republic on the tenth anniversary of NAFTA, summed it up this way: “The reality of NAFTA at 10 years old is this: a story of winners and losers, divided largely by the workplace and what we do.” The same goes for the impact of NAFTA on small businesses.
For some, it was an opportunity to grow and for others it was a challenge. The United States had a trade surplus with NAFTA countries of $28.3 billion for services in 2009 and a trade deficit of $94.6 billion (36.4% per year) in 2010. This trade deficit represented 26.8% of the total U.S. trade deficit. [89] A 2018 study on international trade published by the Center for International Relations identified irregularities in NAFTA trade patterns using network theory analysis techniques. The study showed that the U.S. trade balance was influenced by the potential for tax evasion in Ireland. [90] Additional ancillary agreements have been reached to allay concerns about the potential impact of the treaty on the labour market and the environment. Critics feared that U.S.
and Canadian companies in Mexico would have generally low wages, which would lead to a shift of production to Mexico and a rapid reduction in manufacturing employment in the United States and Canada. Meanwhile, environmentalists were concerned about the potentially catastrophic effects of rapid industrialization in Mexico, which does not have experience in implementing and enforcing environmental legislation. Possible environmental problems were raised in the North American Environmental Cooperation Agreement (NAAEC), which established the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) in 1994. On September 30, 2018, the deadline for negotiations between Canada and the United States, an interim agreement was reached between the two countries, thus retaining the trilateral pact when the Trump administration submits the agreement to Congress. [150] The new name of the agreement was the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and came into force on July 1, 2020. [151] [152] The second parallel agreement is the North American Environmental Cooperation Agreement (NAAEC), which established the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) in 1994. The CEC is responsible for strengthening regional cooperation in the environmental field, reducing potential trade and environmental conflicts and promoting effective enforcement of environmental legislation.
