Pros And Cons Of Nafta's Economic Performance
NAFTA’s Economic Performance
NAFTA was highly successful at increasing economic performance, but while there were many benefits for the members of NAFTA, there are always winners and losers in an agreement. In this section, I will assess the extent to which NAFTA helped expand trade and investment flow among member countries as well as discuss the winners and the losers of the agreement.
NAFTA is the largest free trade area, with around 450 million people and links economies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. NAFTA boosted economic growth, profits, and jobs for these countries as well as lowered prices for consumers. One huge area that NAFTA improved was trade among its member countries; from 1993 to 2017, Trade between these three …show more content…
Due to the lowered tariffs, import prices dropped, lessening the risk of inflation, which allowed the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low. This is especially important for oil prices since America’s largest import is oil. NAFTA reduced the United States reliance on oil imports from the Middle East and shifted it to our friendly countries, which was extremely beneficial because oil is often used as a political chess piece. Aside from oil, food prices were also lowered in much the same way. NAFTA helped to lower prices of fresh vegetables, chocolate, most fruit, and beef, to name a …show more content…
There is no doubt that jobs were also created in much the same way in Mexico and Canada. In addition, since NAFTA was enacted, US foreign direct investment in Canada and Mexico has more than tripled. This helped to boost the US economy as it gave us more opportunities to develop and markets to explore. So, it is clear to see that the member countries were the winners, but who were the losers?
While there were benefits to the members of NAFTA, the member countries also suffered some losses, especially Mexico. First, many US jobs were sent to Mexico, as the labor is much cheaper there. In this situation, the US is losing jobs while Mexico is gaining. This increase in jobs for Mexico though had negative impacts on their environment. Due to NAFTA’s competitive pressure, Mexico agriculture used more fertilizers and other chemicals, causing an extreme amount of pollution. Also, rural farmers expanded drastically, resulting in deforestation at alarming
NAFTA was highly successful at increasing economic performance, but while there were many benefits for the members of NAFTA, there are always winners and losers in an agreement. In this section, I will assess the extent to which NAFTA helped expand trade and investment flow among member countries as well as discuss the winners and the losers of the agreement.
NAFTA is the largest free trade area, with around 450 million people and links economies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. NAFTA boosted economic growth, profits, and jobs for these countries as well as lowered prices for consumers. One huge area that NAFTA improved was trade among its member countries; from 1993 to 2017, Trade between these three …show more content…
Due to the lowered tariffs, import prices dropped, lessening the risk of inflation, which allowed the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low. This is especially important for oil prices since America’s largest import is oil. NAFTA reduced the United States reliance on oil imports from the Middle East and shifted it to our friendly countries, which was extremely beneficial because oil is often used as a political chess piece. Aside from oil, food prices were also lowered in much the same way. NAFTA helped to lower prices of fresh vegetables, chocolate, most fruit, and beef, to name a …show more content…
There is no doubt that jobs were also created in much the same way in Mexico and Canada. In addition, since NAFTA was enacted, US foreign direct investment in Canada and Mexico has more than tripled. This helped to boost the US economy as it gave us more opportunities to develop and markets to explore. So, it is clear to see that the member countries were the winners, but who were the losers?
While there were benefits to the members of NAFTA, the member countries also suffered some losses, especially Mexico. First, many US jobs were sent to Mexico, as the labor is much cheaper there. In this situation, the US is losing jobs while Mexico is gaining. This increase in jobs for Mexico though had negative impacts on their environment. Due to NAFTA’s competitive pressure, Mexico agriculture used more fertilizers and other chemicals, causing an extreme amount of pollution. Also, rural farmers expanded drastically, resulting in deforestation at alarming