The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Globalization is integrated in multiple facets of everyday life which is reflective in areas like but not limited to contemporary art, linguistic changes, and population migration. Globalization is described as “the spread and intensification of economic, social, and cultural relations across international borders” and it is deeply intertwined with politics on both the international and domestic scales. One aspect that fuels the overarching umbrella term of globalization is international political economy. International political economy is the complex exchange in markets and states that involves politics and economics. The exchange is considered to be complex due to the presence of winners and losers resulting in wealthy countries and impoverished
countries.
International political economy is composed of a gamut of interactions between nation states, the sizes and extent of these transactions take shape in various forms. Trade agreements such as preferential trade agreements foster trade and other transactions between participating countries by applying less trade restrictions. One of the largest preferential trade agreements in our nation, the United States, is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which is a highly comprehensive and extensive trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States. NAFTA is a preferential trade agreement that continues to be widely debated, and even more so during the present day’s political climate. There is great uncertainty of the future of NAFTA as the debate revolves around whether the trade agreement should be eliminated, or renegotiated. NAFTA has provided the participating member states with the foundation toward growth in many aspects, and it can continue to enable the member states to be powerhouses in the Western Hemisphere if the trade agreement was modernized to fit our present-day
economies. The North American Free Trade agreement allows the participating nation states to engage in free trade.
Free trade is an agreement to reduce tariffs and other barriers in order to allow equal access to markets and foster greater opportunities for trade. NAFTA took effect after its ratification in January 1994 under United States President George W. Bush. The agreement initially was a bilateral trade agreement between Canada and the U.S., but it was expanded to include Mexico. NAFTA promotes the “free flow of goods” through the elimination of duties, tariffs and trade barriers. This elimination was done in a gradual manner and over a span of fifteen years. Under NAFTA, Mexico has sent 80% of its exports to the U.S. and the stock investment between the U.S. and Canada was over $387 billion Canadian dollars in 2015. These numbers of exchange demonstrate the considerable amount of trade that is being facilitated by NAFTA, and it supports how substantial trade between the member states is. Under NAFTA, Mexican corn, dry beans, along with U.S. orange juice and sugar saw tariff reductions. Major manufacturing industries such the automobile, electronics, and aerospace industry were also included in the agreement. NAFTA was able to help generate economic prosperity and growth across all participating partners. These rules and trade procedures were able to strengthen and facilitate investment and trade across North America. NAFTA has provided a solid trade foundation that has
served as a catalyst for building international businesses and enabling foreign investment, but despite the positive gains to NAFTA there is a considerable amount of debate opposing the trade agreement.