Has the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) been beneficial? |
NAFTA is ok
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA which was signed by the Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, the American President George Bush and the Mexican president Carlos Salinas on the 1st of January 1994. and for almost 20 years it has bettered the lives of North Americans.
NAFTA has inspired economic growth and has increased unemployment rates in Canada, USA and Mexico and has created a more stable economy. NAFTA has increased trade. NAFTA also increased the variety of goods sold in the stores.Posted by: AnonymousNAFTA allows for US companies to have to compete with a foreign market.
We can now buy from more NAFTA affiliated places, allowing consumers to shop around and US businesses to compete more rather than just gouging their prices upward. The higher prices go, the less likely certain types of people are to buy products. American companies can make products cheaper than they currently offer; let's force them to do so.
Posted by: R3gg43PietNAFTA Is Great!
NAFTA provides Canada with new and unique products that many people appreciate. Think about it... If it weren't for NAFTA, we would not get certain fruits or vegetables for a reasonable price. Even things such as Oreo cookies are cheaper because of the lack of tariffs. This helps both economies when we feed off of each other.
Posted by: AnonymousNAFTA has raised our standard of living.
Standards of living have risen since the agreement has been in place in all three countries. The improving living conditions in these are due to businesses in Canada getting more profit, which in time has led to more job creation in our country. Also, we benefit from NAFTA directly because many of our jobs are linked to trade.
Posted by: AnonymousI think NAFTA has been beneficial, because it has brought lower prices to consumers across North America.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been highly beneficial to most everyone living in North America. The trade bloc eliminated tariffs on trade amongst the countries, resulting in much lower prices for citizens of Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Although some plants relocated because of the price implications of these tariffs being eliminated, especially in the United States, this short term loss of jobs is more than offset by the lower prices and better quality of life now enjoyed by the rest of the public.
Posted by: LongBo86It has encouraged good trading.
The goal of NAFTA was to eliminate barriers of trade and investment between the USA, Canada and Mexico. The implementation of NAFTA on January 1, 1994, brought the immediate elimination of tariffs on more than one half of US imports from Mexico and more than one third of US exports to Mexico. Within 10 years of the implementation of the agreement, all US-Mexico tariffs would be eliminated except for some US agricultural exports to Mexico that were to be phased out in 15 years. Most US-Canada trade was already duty free. NAFTA also seeks to eliminate non-tariff trade barriers.
Posted by: TmlxMorI agree that the North American Free Trade Agreement has been beneficial because it has allowed for the creation of jobs for America.
NAFTA has been very beneficial in the years that it has been in place, specifically because it has created jobs for the American people as well as those in Mexico and Canada. It has allowed easy exchange between the three countries in North America and has been great for all involved.
Posted by: CompleteJerrodNAFTA is good.
From 1993 to 2007, trade among the NAFTA nations more than tripled,from $297 billion to $930 billion. Business investment in the United States has risen by 117 percent since 1993, compared to a 45 percent increase between 1979 and 1931. U.S. employment rose from 110.8 million people in 1993 to 137.6 million in 2007, an increase of 24 percent. The average unemployment rate was 5.1 percent in the period 1994-2007, compared to 7.1 percent during the period 1980-1993. NAFTA has helped all the countries involved in many different ways.
Posted by: Anonymousmyth vs reality
Critics often claim that America has gained little from NAFTA. For example, the United Auto Workers has stated that "NAFTA has been a disaster." This is not true. As U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoë lick points out, "U.S. exports to our NAFTA partners increased 104 percent between 1993 and 2000; U.S. Trade with the rest of the world grew only half as fast."
Posted by: AnonymousThe NAFTA agreement has created more jobs than it has lost.
Free trade agreements are always controversial. There are always some people who will lose their jobs, because a similar product can be produced more economically in another country. But, everything that I have read supports the idea that more jobs are created when we have more free trade with other countries. NAFTA is a success story.
Posted by: ddeathnote
The North American Free Trade Agreement has given other countries and competitive advantage over us and encouraged US businesses to move to other countries.
The North American Free Trade Agreement was intended to open up trade opportunities for us with other countries but the unfortunate result of the act is that it has put us at a competitive disadvantage because of the low wages in those countries that we trade with. Because of the cost of wages in those countries they can afford to sell goods at a much better price than we can. That low wage has also encouraged many US companies to move production factories out of the US to countries with lower wages causing a massive loss of jobs in the US.
Posted by: TasticBranI don't think that the North American Free Trade Agreement has been beneficial because it has upset the US economy.
I don't believe that NAFTA has been beneficial because it has upset the U.S. economy. NAFTA has caused the dwindling job opportunities in the U.S. by sending the jobs to our neighboring countries. The U.S. agricultural and manufacturing industries have suffered the most. We need to keep jobs in our own country.
Posted by: M4IM4d3I disagree that the NAFTA has been very beneficial to the US because no significant positive changes in the economy have occurred.
It is just a formal agreement in order to provide a sense of community to the continent. The changes in the United States GDP would not be noticeable without the agreement. Furthermore, only a small number of other products have entered the United States market that otherwise would not have.
Posted by: SimeBeautyNAFT
NAFTA destroyed the U.S.A. It is responsible for thousands of jobs being lost to Mexico. Plus, the Mexicans hit the U.S.A. like a tidal wave and they have taken us over. Clinton destroyed the U.S.A. with NAFTA. We are now in 2012, and look at the U.S.A. It has taken about 10 years to see what the ramifications of NAFTA would be. We are a third-world nation because of Bill Clinton.
Posted by: DoubletroubledebNo, NAFTA has not been beneficial to the common man, because it has only benefited big businesses.
NAFTA has made the price of food cheaper, so in some ways it has helped people. But on the whole, it has only helped big businesses who hoard money, and who don't generally help the common man.
Posted by: R4v4g3rPavII don't think the NAFTA treaty has been beneficial to the U.S.
I think the North American Free Trade Agreement has only helped Mexico. Just like Ross Perot said before the treaty was ratified, there is a giant sucking sound coming from Mexico taking our jobs and money. I don't know of any way the United States benefited from the treaty unless it helped us keep getting cheap produce.
Posted by: GaudyTory37NAFTA has created widespread poverty in Mexico and loss of jobs in the United States, adding to the worldwide economic problems.
The NAFTA bill created economic benefit for corporations, but has created a host of problems for everyday citizens. A huge number of US manufacturing jobs have been sent overseas. At the same time, Mexican citizens have suffered the closure of family farms and smaller enterprises increasing the likelihood of immigrants crossing the border illegally. The negative effect on the Mexican economy has been a contributing factor in the rise of drug cartels in Mexico. These factors have had a negative impact on both countries to the benefit of a few corporations.
Posted by: P3nrIinNo, the North American Free Trade Agreement has only made it easier to make everything cheaper somewhere else.
The Free Trade Agreement lowered the tariffs on more than half of the U.S. imports, which, in the short term, meant cheaper products. In the long term however, it meant it was no longer smart business to make anything in America. Because it was cheaper to farm food or make something elsewhere, and then ship it to America, many of the middle-class production jobs are vanishing in America.
Posted by: H_BairdOn the whole I don't believe NAFTA was beneficial to the US economy.
NAFTA has allowed US service jobs to be more easily exported to nearby countries. However it has kept wages in the US from increasing. It has also caused lost jobs in the US manufacturing and agricultural industries. Overall NAFTA has hurt the US economy.
Posted by: TlnAlandCanada has lost manufacturing jobs initially to USA
There were immediate losses as factories in Canada were moved to U.S.A. Or Mexico. .some were already American owned. Some were bought by American companies and moved. Some were Canadian owned. Canada is still loosing manufacturing but now to China and other countries like India etc. Just as U.S.A. Is loosing jobs overseas. I think every country needs to protect its core industries and the politicians are on steroids looking to sign trade deals that will hurt us all overall in the long term. We all need stability in our countries economies. Their so called free trade comes with too many inclusions in the rules. This in my mind makes that trade not free or fair. Supply and demand without contrived agreements lets us do what we do best. Free trade deals allow companies to use slave labor and then sell in richer places. When they push too far and for too long the labor movements in Canada, U.S.A. And around the world will have to fight all over again for fair treatment. I believe that as time goes forward people will be more and more left with only that as a solution.
Posted by: AnonymousNafta's negative impact on Mexico
In 1994, the north American free trade agreement came into effect between Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. Fifteen years later, naphtha has made it so corporate profits are promoted at the expense of environmental safeguards, health protections, and workers rights. Mexico has been the most negatively affected by this. Under naphtha, the majority of investments into Mexico were in maquiladora factories which returned profits to the U.S. And did not promote economic development in Mexico. Over 2700 maquiladoras were constructed along already environmentally-strained and overpopulated border regions between Mexico and the U.S. The overcrowded cities and towns associated with these maquiladoras continually struggle to meet basic sewage and waste disposal needs, resulting in hepatitis a infection rates more than double the average in Mexico. Average manufacturing worker earns only 28.6% of what a family of four needs to cover basic necessities. 75% of the Mexican population lived in poverty in 2001.
Posted by: AnonymousThe NAFTA agreement has consolidated power, and not necessarily in trustworthy hands.
The North American Free Trade Agreement has consolidated economic power in North America into an increasingly smaller and smaller number of hands. This consolidation of power can and often does lead to abuses of that power and a loss of freedoms for the people subjected to the rules of those who hold such powerful authority.
Posted by: Wynn354Free trade is free loss of jobs
Free trade allowed a free flow of goods. Americans initially benefited from cheaper goods while their wages were steady. The influx of illegal aliens to the United States along with the export of American jobs to Mexico has caught up with us. There are now fewer jobs in the United States over the past ten years, while native population growth and ten million illegal aliens have resulted in more workers competing for those jobs. Free trade has also led to subsidized American crops being sold in Mexico, driving poor farmers there out of business and into overcrowded cities. It has been good for businesses able to move jobs to cheaper locales, but not for anyone else.
Posted by: Pir4AndI have very mixed feelings about NAFTA, because there have been drawbacks, alongside of the benefits.
It is hard to choose sides about NAFTA. While you can imagine that there have been benefits, I tend to watch what Canadians are thinking about NAFTA, and other controversies that have arisen. I also think unemployment now may have something to do with the lack of manufacturing jobs provided here in America.
Posted by: PointlessElbert47I do believe that NAFTA was beneficial to certain areas of the United States, but that in the long run it did more harm than good
When NAFTA was instated it did triple the trade between Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.A. It linked billions of people and provided many jobs and services. However NAFTA hasn't been beneficial to the average Joe. The environmental conditions in Mexico worsened. The labor laws in this country have also gotten pretty bad. In factories that employ women to make T.V.'s for example, thousands of the women go missing, and many have been raped and murdered because foreign companies can replace them for less than it would cost to protect them. Millions of U.S. jobs have also vanished as a result of NAFTA, and many believe that this has had a hand in the unemployment sky rocket which occurred after the economic collapse.
Posted by: XglossyWyndNAFTA has been anything but free, it's organized by nonelected people for goals they feel obligated to no one.
Of course we want North America to have free trade. It took a whole lot of protests and the response to that protest for the majority of ordinary people to begin to even wonder about the agreement -- it seemed so far outside of people's lives. Protestors seemed so far from ordinary people's lives. The way the government responded to conflict broke faith in a way that many would have believed impossible. Because of the actions protesting NAFTA, a lot of ordinary people were willing to look twice at our government and the people in it.
Posted by: groovyboxMany jobs have been lost to Mexico and Canada and our trade deficit with both countries has gotten larger.
Both of these counties own much of our debt. Manufacturers have closed plants in the US to take advantage of lower wages and fewer regulations. It does not help our efforts to fight global warming when a CO2 emitting company can simply move to Mexico to avoid the new regulations.
Posted by: DavePennypackerSkewed export statistics
Goods leaving the us on a tractor/trailer are parts to be placed in twin plant operations and returned to the us. We exported nothing. We just sent over parts to be placed with other pieces and returned to the us free of duty. 70.3 per cent of all goods entering the us enters duty free. Jobs gone, no income taxes, local, state or federal collected, no new mortgages, car or school loans, retirement plans, health care fees, sick, vacation holiday pay, all gone. 3.5 trillion lost in the last ten years in tariff revenue.
Posted by: AnonymousIt floods are market with cheap goods which hurts our economy.
Being aloud free trade means there is no tariff on imported goods from certain areas. So when Mexico makes a product that is equivalent to a US product but sells it for a dollar less, most thrifty people are going to buy product from Mexico. Therefore American companies go out of business well Mexico profits.
Posted by: C0rn4Gamer