What is The Free Trade Agreement? The Free Trade Agreement or FTA is more than just exchanging goods between Canada and America. The FTA, best understood in the words of Ronald Reagan is " A new economic constitution for North America." (Cameron Pg. 3). It is an exchange of goods between Canada and America, free of taxes on import and export products, so each of the countries benefits from the other's industry. The signing of the Free Trade Agreement replaced the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs or GATT. There are many advantages and disadvantages of the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and America, yet Canada is not getting much of a good deal, only in certain ways are Canadians at an advantage. Some advantages are: an increase in production, and better U.S-Canada relations. Some of the disadvantages are: diminished population growth, loss of jobs, diminished sovereignty, and workers facing concessions on wages, working conditions, and living standards. .
To begin, an advantage to the FTA is an increase of production. Canadian businesses would increase production to keep up with American producers, so as not to be bought out. With more investment in Canadian businesses due to elimination of tariffs, Canadian industry will grow and expand, increasing production and efficiency (Bain .
Pg.376).
Another reason why the Free Trade Agreement is an advantage to Canada is that it helps relations between Canada and the U.S, because the two nations have not always seen eye to eye, they now have something to connect them. The FTA helps the two countries get on each other's good side due to help from one another in business and trade. To sum it up, there are not very many reasons why the Free Trade Agreement is an advantage, but there are some.
There are many reasons why the FTA is a disadvantage. Firstly, the population of Canada isn't increasing like it should; because of the FTA our workers are going to America to get jobs because America can offer more money to their workers because they have the money to do it, whereas Canadian businesses are lowering wages to make more money to try to keep up with the American production.
