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Analyzes the economic, social, political and environmental implications of NAFTA from a range of critical perspectives. The chapters, unified by a sceptical view of the management of economic integration in North America cover the economic strategy of Mexico, Canada-US trade agreement and more.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a milestone in the affairs of the continent and in international trade. The first formal arrangement of any kind between Canada, the United States, and Mexico, it is also the first trade pact including countries of such disproportionate power and levels of development. For Canada and Mexico the agr
Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: USA, grade: 2,3, Free University of Berlin, language: English, abstract: In the wake of globalization, many countries are reducing trade barriers and tariffs, resulting in a rise of free-trade areas in which the participating countries trade freely among each other without any restrictions. The goal of these agreements is the increase of wealth in each nation's economy. To reach this goal, the USA, Canada and Mexico negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which came into effect on January, 1st 1994. It was the world's largest free-trade area with a combined population of over 360m people and a total GDP of 6$ trillion. Today, the NAFTA area comprises a 12.5$ trillion economy and a 430m strong population. For the first time, two highly industrialized, rich countries affiliated themselves with a poorer, newly industrialized country. At the time of its ratification, the agreement was extremely controversial in all three member states and opinions in political camps differed vastly. Supporters of the contract were mostly big companies and investors who were hoping that it would loosen restrictions and barriers on the capital market. Opponents of the agreement were trade unions which, especially in the United States, railed heavily against it. They feared outsourcing and massive job displacements to Mexico, a country in which labor is incredibly cheap and environment protection laws are lax or do not even exist. In Mexico, landowners were skeptical of NAFTA because they feared unfair competition with US-American farmers who are still to this day greatly subsidized by the government.
This collection of nine essays includes works by noted authorities in the fields of academia, business, and government. They analyze the agreement and its political, economic and socio-cultural effects. Each author draws on a unique background, with authors coming from the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The collection includes views from both supporters and critics of the agreement. The NAFTA has provoked much debate and raised many difficult questions. While there are no easy answers to these questions, these engaging essays provide us with a coherent and comprehensive perspective to help the reader become better informed. Co-published with the Harvard Center for International Studies. Contributors: Brenda McPhail, Sidney Weintraub, Virginia Druhe, Remi L. Wrona, Neil Nevitte, Miguel Basanez, Elaine Bernard, Mildred A. Schwartz, Christopher Gutierrez, Daniel "Duke" McVey.
Preferential trading arrangements (PTAs) play an increasingly prominent role in the global political economy, two notable examples being the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement. These agreements foster economic integration among member states by enhancing their access to one another's markets. Yet despite the importance of PTAs to international trade and world politics, until now little attention has been focused on why governments choose to join them and how governments design them. This book offers valuable new insights into the political economy of PTA formation. Many economists have argued that the roots of these agreements lie in the promise they hold for improving the welfare of member states. Others have posited that trade agreements are a response to global political conditions. Edward Mansfield and Helen Milner argue that domestic politics provide a crucial impetus to the decision by governments to enter trade pacts. Drawing on this argument, they explain why democracies are more likely to enter PTAs than nondemocratic regimes, and why as the number of veto players--interest groups with the power to block policy change--increases in a prospective member state, the likelihood of the state entering a trade agreement is reduced. The book provides a novel view of the political foundations of trade agreements.
This is the only book of its kind devoted to exploring contentious politics from a North American perspective, including protests, social movements, transnational contention, and emergent regional governance processes, between Canadian, U.S. and Mexican state and civil society actors.