NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, became effective on January 1, 1994. The agreement is made up between the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico. In an increasingly competitive economy, NAFTA was designed to decrease trading costs, increase business investments, and to assist North America in becoming more aggressive in the global trading market. The initial theory in developing NAFTA was to heighten prosperity for each country by providing access to a massive market with a broad selection of goods and services. Promoting free movement of goods and services over the boundaries of the USA, Canada, and Mexico was one of the several goals ultimately leading to the creation of NAFTA. All things considered, there were seven specific goals NAFTA was developed to attain, as listed in Article 102 of the NAFTA agreement, it includes “granting the signatories Most-Favored-Nation status, eliminate barriers to trade and facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and services, promote conditions of fair competition, increase investment opportunities, provide protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, create …show more content…
Strongly enough, NAFTA’s linking of economies from three different countries created the world 's largest free trade area consisting of millions of people. For example, NAFTA has provided many benefits including “Quadrupled trade, lowered prices, increased economic growth, created jobs, increased foreign direct investments, and reduced government spending.” (6 benefits) At the same time, the NAFTA agreement has also created problems, especially for the U.S and Mexico, including “U.S jobs were lost, U.S wages were suppressed, Mexico’s farmers were put out of business, maquiladora workers were exploited, Mexico’s environment deteriorated, and NAFTA called for free U.S access for Mexican trucks.” (6 negative