Facts About NAFTA
NAFTA has been seen as both a great boon and horrific agreement, to wit, it is very controversial. Regardless, here are the facts about NAFTA for your purview.
Facts About NAFTA
NAFTA is the abbreviation for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is an agreement between the North American countries of the United States, Canada and Mexico. NAFTA has been in the news consistently since its inception on January 1, 1994, and the term NAFTA is used to also refer to the three countries who signed this agreement as a joint group (this term is often used in international news). While these are the basic items regarding this trade agreement, there are many more facts about NAFTA to be explored.
The purpose of signing NAFTA was so that duties would be removed on about half of the items imported into Mexico and Canada from the US. Restrictions on imports were also removed from many categories, such as computer goods, motor vehicles, textiles and agricultural products. Also in the language of NAFTA was included a provision to reduce the tariffs (taxes) on other items over a period of about 14 years.
Some other facts about NAFTA include the fact that it is considered the “greenest” of the free trade agreements in the world, with the attachment of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (NACEC) to the agreement meaning that US money was given to Mexico to help clean up their pollutants. Economically, it is hard to say whether or not NAFTA is a success. Some countries, particularly in Europe, see no benefit to NAFTA other than making the US and Mexico richer, and lessening the imports of goods from other parts of the world to North America. People, particularly politicians, in the US also see NAFTA as a mistake, for they believe it causes more jobs to be taken from the US as companies become more freely able to move operations to Mexico.
While the facts about NAFTA don't differ, it is clear that the world view, and even the view of the agreement within North America, differs greatly. Some people see this as a great way to allow more money to get to impoverished Mexico, while giving the US a closer place to sell their goods intended for export. Other people see this agreement as just a way to make the US richer, and a way to make large companies richer as well. They argue that since it is easier and cheaper to have items produced in Mexico, too many jobs will end up there. The lessened restrictions on imports and exports make it easy for Mexico to export these goods back to the US, circumventing the creation of jobs in this country.
Whatever your view is, it's clear that NAFTA will have a large impact on the US for years to come.
