NAFTA
On January 1st, 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect, creating the world's largest free trade area. Among the main objectives is the liberalization of trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States, to stimulate economic growth and give the NAFTA countries equal access to each other's markets. Some of the promised benefits were 200,000 new U.S. jobs from NAFTA per year, higher wages in Mexico, a growing U.S. trade surplus with Mexico, environmental clean-up and improved health along the border. This appeared to be a great agreement, but after only five years of being in affect, Americans were starting to see the results of NAFTA and the failing promises. In 1999, for the first time ever, Americans say the U.S. trade deficit is the most important economic issue facing the country, above taxes, the federal budget deficit, and inflation. After years of NAFTA, the American people were starting to see the real effects of NAFTA. The most important feature of NAFTA that would benefit the people is employment and the promise that NAFTA would create hundreds of thousands of new, high paying jobs. There was also a promise that wages in Mexico would increase due to NAFTA. With NAFTA, w
"NAFTA at 5 years report card." Editorial. Public Citizen 22 December 1998. http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/nafta/naftapg.html. Over the past five years, the worldwide U.S. agricultural trade surplus has been growing. However, since 1993, the U.S. agricultural surplus with Mexico and Canada has declined by two-thirds under NAFTA. American farmers are having a difficult time of competing with the labor in Mexico. In Mexico, they pay $6 a day for labor and that is how much the American farmers pay their employees per hour. This is hurting U.S. farmers because Mexican farmers can charge a lower rate on their goods due to cheaper labor, whereas, the American farmers have to keep there rates high enough to make some income.
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Approximate Word count = 1094
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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