What is NAFTA? This is an agreement which was meant to help the job economy.
“NAFTA recognizes the reality of today’s economy – globalization and technology. Our future is not in competing at the low-level wage job; it is in creating high-wage, new technology jobs based on our skills and our productivity.” – John Kerry
NAFTA is a corollary progression of the North American economy. Legislatively, its approach was felt since the ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, ushered along by The Trade and Tariff Act, and rendered inevitable by the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States. NAFTA is essentially a trilateral trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico that enables free movement, shipment, and trade between the three countries in order to combine the strength of the three economies. Ronald Reagan first introduced the idea during as a part of his campaign pursuant to a North American common market akin to the European Union. Congress granted Fast Track privileges to the president in the same year, making it much easier for President Ronald Reagan to make good of his promise. Finally, 11 years later in 1992, the trade agreement was signed into legislation through President George Bush Sr. along with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada as well as President Carlos Salinas de Gotari of Mexico, and President Bill Clinton added necessary provisions.
What Is In the Agreement?
The NAFTA legislation is comprised of 22 chapters providing definitions, explanations, legalese, and regulations to be followed by each country (although the countries sometimes seem to consider these regulations optional). These chapters cover:
- Access to goods throughout North America
- Determinants for North American products (as one can benefit from NAFTA sanctions only if it can be proven that it was constructed either mostly or entirely within North American from materials that are mostly or entirely North American)
- Customs
- Agriculture
- Quality standards
- Government procurement
- Investment
- All trade matters
- The temporary entry of business person’s privilege
- Intellectual property
- Dispute settlement
- Environmental standards
- Labor cooperation