Nafta

On January 1, 1994, Canada Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) added Mexico in the agreement and formed the North American Free Trade Agreement; better known as NAFTA. The purpose of NAFTA was not only to eliminate trade barriers but also to increase cross-border movement of goods and services, increase investment opportunities and promote fair competition. It was also meant to remove duties on about half of the items imported to Mexico and Canada, to reduce taxes on items.

NAFTA is now the largest free trade zone with more than 406 million people producing more than 11 billion goods and services. It has also been recently updated with the North American Agreement of Economic Cooperation (NAAEC) and the North American Agreement for Labor Cooperation (NAALC).

NAAEC was made in parallel with NAFTA. It requires each country to ensure its laws provide environmental protection without lowering standards to attract investments. All environmental laws were agreed to be enforced through the use of inspectors. All countries also had to write a report on the state of its environment, have set environmental emergency procedures, and promote environmental education.

NAALC was also made in parallel with NAFTA. It was meant to form greater cooperation between the 3 countries in the labor area. It was also designed to make the laws and regulations of each countries labor effective.

NAFTA has now been in effect for over 10 years and has caused a lot of controversial issues around the world. Some people believe that NAFTA has helped with jobs, exports, and imports while others believe it has done nothing but cause a major downfall in these areas.

At www.factsmonk.com states that countries particularly in Europe, believe that NAFTA has not been a success. They think the only benefit to it is that the United States and Mexico are becoming richer, and is lowering the imports of goods from other parts of the world to North America. Politicians in the U.S. also see NAFTA as a mistake. They argue that it is taking jobs from the U.S. and moving them to Mexico because people see it has being easier and cheaper to have items produced there.

According to U.S. government data NAFTA has benefited Americans a lot. It has increased exports, expanded agriculture, helped environmental standards everywhere, and has given Americans higher paying jobs. Even since this information has been released, free trade critics still believe