The North American Free Trade Agreement - 2468 Words

1.1 Introduction The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was is the biggest free trade region in the globe, creating economic development and helping to raise the living standard for the citizens of all three member states. By strengthening the policies and procedures governing trade and investment, the NAFTA has indicated to be a solid foundation for developing Canada’s prosperity and has set an important example of the advantages of trade liberalization for the rest of the globe. Two decades after its implementation, the NAFTA, has helped make better intraregional trade among the states of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, but has not created the jobs and the deeper regional economic integration its promoters promised years†¦show more content†¦The NAFTA partners have set up this website to offer Canadians, Americans, and Mexicans with information about the way NAFTA works and the numerous ways in which it has improved the lives of the people in North America (De Hoyos Leonardo, 2011). 1.2 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) NAFTA is a trilateral free-trade agreement that came into effect in January 1994, signed by the then U.S. president Bill Clinton, Mexican president Carlos Salinas, and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrà ©tien. The central drive of the agreement is to get rid of most tariffs on products traded among the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The terms of the agreement required these tariffs to be gotten rid of slowly but surely, and the final factors of the deal weren t entirely implemented until January 1, 2008. The deal got rid of import tariffs in numerous industries such as agriculture which was a major focus, but tariffs were also reduced on items such as textiles and automobiles. In addition, NAFTA implemented intellectual-property protections, set up dispute-resolution systems, and set up regional labor and environmental safeguards, though several critics now lobby for stronger strategies on this front (Agama McDaniel, 2002). 1.3 Economists’ way of assessing NAFTA s economic impact It is challenging to verify causality between NAFTA s implementation and economic development, and it is not possible to compute the