The Pros And Cons Of NAFTA

1323 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay about Nafta economic impact

When thinking about North American and its countries it is hard not to think about the North American Free Trade Agreement. Well, it may be easy to not think about but of this essay let just say that everyone thinks about it. This trade agreement was implanted over 20 years ago and the affects of this agreement are still being talked about today. This agreement is being talked about because of the numerous criticisms it has received since in was enacted in 1994. Where the agreement was actually beneficially is not the main topic of discussion. In this essay, it will examine the main criticism of NAFTA and tried to explain how they came to be. The main argument is that NAFTA is more known for its criticism then what is has done to create better trade among its members.
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a trilateral free-trade deal that came into being in January 1994. NAFTA was signed on December 17, 1992 by U.S. President George H. Bush, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and Canadian Prime Minister Brain Mulroney. The central purpose of this agreement was to eliminate most tariffs on produces traded between the United States, Mexico, and Canada. NAFTA subsequently created the largest world free trading area, which linked more than 250 million people in the region and whom produced $17 trillion worth of good and services (Sergie). About one-fourth of U.S. imports, (especially crude oil, machinery, gold, vehicles, fresh produce, livestock and processed foods), comes from Canada and Mexico, which are the United States’ second- and third-largest suppliers of imported goods. In addition, about one-third of U.S. exports; particularly machinery, vehicle parts, mineral fuel and oil, and plastics are destined for C...

... middle of paper ...

...nd Jeffrey Schott of the Institute for International Economics estimated that the agreement could add 170,00 jobs to the U.S. labor market by the year 2000, while Clyde Prestowitz of the Economic Strategy Institute estimated a loss of 42,00 jobs over the same period of time.
In the end, NAFTA was and is highly criticized. NAFTA was criticized how its affects or lack of affect on the Mexican economy and the promises were made when NAFTA was created. Even with these criticisms, NAFTA has done a relatively good job of creating an open and free trade network between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It has also increased industrial integration between the countries in involved because of the shared information between them. In the near future, NAFTA will need to be look at again to fix these criticisms and that will allow for a stronger trade agreement between the nations.

Show More
Related

  • Understanding International Trade: Costs, Benefits, and Agreements

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    Trade is the most common form of transferring ownership of a product. The concepts are very simple, I give you something (a good or service) and you give me something (a good or service) in return, everyone is happy. However, trade is not limited to two individuals. There are trades that happen outside national borders and we refer to that as international trading. Before a country does international trading, they do research to understand the opportunity costs and marginal costs of their production versus another countries production. Doing this we can increase profit, decrease costs and improve overall trade efficiency. Currently, there are negotiations going on between 11 countries about making a trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific

    Read More

  • On How American Companies Started Offshoring White and Blue Collar Positions to Other Countries with Low Pay since the 1960's

    2192 Words  | 5 Pages

    By offshoring American jobs companies will be able to profit from those positions. In contrast, employees will be affected and probably will need to gain more training in order to find another job.

    Read More

  • Zapatista Movement in Mexcio

    1284 Words  | 3 Pages

    "North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2011. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. .

    Read More

  • U.S-Mexico Borderlands

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    After three years of debate NAFTA was established in 1994. Fears concerning NAFTA included job creation, loss and transfer, wages and infrastructure. (Ganster/Lorey 188-189) However, with the implementation of NAFTA the economy grew. Ganster and Lorey reveal that bilateral trade increased by $211.4 per year from 1989 to 2004. Commerce grew by 20 percent in the first six months of 1994. There were advantages and disadvantages of NAFTA, nevertheless, NAFTA “intensified the integration of the two economies rather than distancing them.” (Ganster/Lorey 190)

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of NAFTA

    1531 Words  | 4 Pages

    The administration believed that NAFTA would create high-wage U.S jobs that would help expand businesses and the economy—making the U.S. the biggest exporter in the world with the biggest global market (Woods 287-288). Also, since many immigrants sought job opportunities in the U.S., NAFTA was to keep Mexicans in Mexico. Providing jobs in Mexico would allow U.S. workers to work for higher wages if there was a reduction in immigration (Woods 287). Woods also state that NAFTA would barely affect any change in the U.S., but for Mexico, there would be drastic changes. It will create even more ties and communication between the two countries. It will remove restrictions set between the two countries (288-289). Although the Clinton administration saw NAFTA creating a positive change between countries, the effects of NAFTA were the opposite of what was

    Read More

  • Canada 's Global Financial Crisis

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...munity. Although Canada is dependent on trade with the United States, NAFTA proves that the relationship goes both ways. Canada proved its worth in the global financial crisis, showing that it can practice good policy despite the dependence.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of NAFTA

    1027 Words  | 3 Pages

    On January 1st, 1994, a treaty that created the largest free trade area were signed into place by the trilateral of United States, Canada, and Mexico. NAFTA is a promise made by world’s most significant corporations claiming to create many high paying jobs and raise the standard of living in the US, Canada and Mexico. As we approach its 21st birthday, NAFTA now links 450 million people producing trillion dollars’ worth of goods and services each year. However, behind this seemingly good deal, it also created many underlying issues. Beginning with NAFTA giving corporation opportunities to move factories aboard to the lower-cost Mexico. Manufacturing aboard did not only outsourced American jobs, it also caused manufacturers that remained to lower

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The New Deal

    636 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the early 1920s, Florida was flourishing economically. Land sales were reaching planetary heights, tourism was booming, and new residents were coming in every day. By September 1926, the population of Dade County and the new City of Miami had blossomed to more than 100,000 and construction was all over. Although Florida was prosperous that was only on the surface, behind the scenes there existed a widespread of poverty. And things got even worst when the 1926 hurricane hit Florida. The hurricane was described by the U.S. Weather Bureau in Miami as "probably the most destructive hurricane ever to strike the United States." Severe flooding and wind damage weakened communities. Lake Okeechobee flooded and drown over 2,000 people in nearby communities. Many buildings that were a work in progress were damaged and discontinued, tourism was at an all-time low, and also many citizens lost their homes. And The Great Depression didn’t make things any easier. Florida was in trouble and in need of help.

    Read More

  • NAFTA: The North American Free Trade Agreement

    1078 Words  | 3 Pages

    Very high population rates do not correspond with working labor force, in that (Polaski 2004) the Mexican labor force grew from 32.3 million immediately before NAFTA to 40.2 million in 2002, meaning that Mexico needed almost a million jobs a year simply to absorb the growth in labor supply. Many theorists suggest that a free trade zone will increase employment, by the increase demand for labor therefore creating a vast rapid workforce. However, NAFTA has greatly impacted manufacturing employment, by producing a low small net gain in hobs in Mexico, in that jobs created in export manufacturing have barely kept pace with jobs lost in agriculture due to imports (Polaski 2004). There has been a visible weakening in domestic manufacturing employment, related in part to increase import competition. In addition, the cause of a decline in domestic manufacturing employment is caused due to the relocation of the maquiladora factory workforce, which the United States has relocated the maquiladora assembly plants to China and Indonesia, because of low wage, cheaper labor workforce, skilled workforce, and less environmental protection laws. The maquiladora assembly plants in the late 20th century have disappeared

    Read More

  • Essay On NAFTA

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    The goal of NAFTA was to systematically eliminate most tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investment between the countries. NAFTA has allowed U.S., Mexico, and Canada to import and export to other at a lower cost, which has increased the profit of goods and services annually. Because the increase in the trade marketplace, NAFTA reduces inflation, creates agreements on intern...

    Read More

  • Negative Effects Of NAFTA

    1300 Words  | 3 Pages

    The NAFTA is involved in this phenomenon because since the agreement involves Mexico it in turn creates job opportunities for the Mexicans and on top of that Mexican workers are part of an underdeveloped country which in turn means they are going to get less money due to the condition of their economy. And for American businessmen that is a very desirable quality in a potential employee due to how much profit the companies and factories will make simply by giving more low paying jobs to Mexicans and decreasing the American workforce. This source relates to economic globalization, because the NAFTA is essentially an economic agreement between major countries to save money and reduce trading taxes. This agreement causes an economic rise in all of these countries by causing an increase in jobs in Mexico and increasing companies’ profits in the US and

    Read More

  • Canada Is Becoming Too Americanized

    933 Words  | 2 Pages

    It should be a great thing for the economies of both countries, but since the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed, American businesses almost took over the Canadian economy. When the American companies started to make more business in Canada, it brought more jobs and money to the country in the short-term. But as a long-term effect Canadians became even more depended on the U.S. as the American companies started dominating Canadian companies in Canada. Also, today Canadian manufacturers have little protection from the government when ch... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • Globalization: The European Union, the ASEAN Group, and NAFTA

    3413 Words  | 7 Pages

    Globalization has become one of the most influential forces in the twentieth century. International integration of world views, products, trade and ideas has caused a variety of states to blur the lines of their borders and be open to an international perspective. The merger of the Europeans Union, the ASEAN group in the Pacific and NAFTA in North America is reflective of the notion of globalized trade. The North American Free Trade Agreement was the largest free trade zone in the world at its conception and set an example for the future of liberalized trade. The North American Free Trade Agreement is coming into it's twentieth anniversary on January 1st, 2014. 1 NAFTA not only sought to enhance the trade of goods and services across the borders of Canada, US and Mexico but it fostered shared interest in investment, transportation, communication, border relations, as well as environmental and labour issues. The North American Free Trade Agreement was groundbreaking because it included Mexico in the arrangement.2 Mexico was a much poorer, culturally different and protective country in comparison to the likes of Canada and the United States. Many members of the U.S Congress were against the agreement because they did not want to enter into an agreement with a country that had an authoritarian regime, human rights violations and a flawed electoral system.3 Both Canadians and Americans alike, feared that Mexico's lower wages and lax human rights laws would generate massive job losses in their respected economies. Issues of sovereignty came into play throughout discussions of the North American Free Trade Agreement in Canada. Many found issue with the fact that bureaucrats and politicians from alien countries would be making deci...

    Read More

  • Service based economy in the U.S.

    354 Words  | 1 Pages

    We say that we are heading toward a more global economy because of the fact that competition in today’s markets is global. This means that corporations in the United States can compete in foreign markets and vice versa, therefore U.S. corporations and foreign corporations become interdependent and thrive off each other. This can have a good impact on the United States because it allows U.S. corporations to seek materials and labor outside of the U.S. in countries such as China, India, and Mexico, where workers are paid a lot less money than U.S. workers, thus allowing them to sell their products for significantly cheaper than if they were produced in the U.S.; however, the tradeoff is that many American workers in the industrial sector lose jobs due to this shift of labor to overseas. In the long run this will be beneficial for the U.S. and although some percentage of workers are losing work, new jobs in the services sector, in fields such as computer technology, telecommunications, and language skills are opening up and experiencing growth because of this change.

    Read More

  • Regional Trade Agreement

    2292 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...e USA and Canada is high and was not considered when the Agreement was made. This is the reason, many American citizens feel that there numerous illegal settlers in their country, trade deficits instead of over pluses and loss of lakhs of jobs, as before. The relations within this bloc are complex and tight; Canada and Mexico are controlled by the USA, declining their trade freedom. All this does not set up a solid base for businesses and trade.

    Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of NAFTA

Open Document