NAFTA, better known as the North American Free Trade Agreement, was first introduced / signed on January 1, 1994. This agreement basically was planned out to remove most barriers to trade and invest among the United States, Canada, and Mexico. This is an agreement that is loved by many and also hated for several reasons. Benefits to U.S. Agriculture and helping the Economy, in my opinion, is what NAFTA does best according to my research.
Canada and Mexico are the second and third largest export markets for U.S. agricultural products. Exports to the two markets combined are greater than exports to Japan or the 15 member European Union, which means more money for the U.S. With that being known, the positive aspects of NAFTA begin to flow in. This helped to more than double trade among the three countries, from $306 billion in 1993 to $621 billion in 2003. It also helped expand U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico from $142 billion to $263 billion during that decade. It has helped grow Mexican exports to NAFTA partners by 232 percent, or $143 billion, between 1993 and 2001. As for employment, manufacturing output increased 44 percent in the 1990's, which increased employment by 20 million between 1993 and 2000. As for agricultural exports, a 100 percent increase took place between 1993 and 2000. The benefits are endless to the American Culture, now we get to Canada and Mexico. General export growth helped generate half of the 3.5 million new jobs created in Mexico between 1995 and 2000, and also helped increase Mexican farm production by 50 percent between 1993 and 2000. As for Canada, it expanded their economy by 3.8 percent annually, generating 2.1 million jobs.
Everything that glitters is not gold, as I was once told, now for the disadvantages. It has resulted in a net loss of 3 million U.S. private-sector jobs since the first Bush administration took office. A trade deficit occurred with the United States' NAFTA partners that grew from $9 billion in 1993 to $87 billion in 2002, also the Global trade deficit of $484 billion, up almost 300 percent from $133 billion in 1993.
