The Pros And Cons Of NAFTA

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” - Ronald Reagan. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was started in order to boost trade between North American countries, and as time went on, the interests of countries started shaping into different things, tradewise. The countries have remained peaceful in this conflict because leaders of each country are able to handle the conflict. Varying views about NAFTA about economic interests as well as lack of clarity about when steps are to be taken cause uncertainties about where NAFTA is.

As leaders realize flaws in NAFTA and want to fix them, the different perspectives of the countries creates a conflict about what should happen to

On a twitter post in August of 2017, Trump posted, “We are in NAFTA renegotiation process… may have to terminate” (Bathgate). The Trump administration has not been extremely specific with the scope of the renegotiations, but “President Trump at times has threatened to withdraw from [NAFTA] without satisfactory results” (Villarreal). Yet more recently, Trump has not been in a large rush to to do much about NAFTA. In a meeting with governors and members of Congress on April 12, 2018, Trump announced, “I keep hearing how we’re pushing NAFTA, we want it done. There’s no timeline. There’s no timeline” (Trump). Canada is definitely pro-NAFTA, but they are willing to renegotiate NAFTA in order to keep free trade because Canada would be the most negatively affected without NAFTA, as over half of their imports and exports are from America (Villarreal). Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau being careful in a speech in Chicago not to offend Donald Trump in his pro-NAFTA speech (Janssen) is just one way that Canada is taking care in order to keep NAFTA. Although the North American Free Trade Agreement has not particularly benefited

The North American Free Trade Agreement has slightly increased the overall economy of the United States, but some industries have been negatively affected. Experts estimate that NAFTA increases U.S. GDP by just a few billion dollars a year- only a few hundredths of a percent increase (Villarreal). U.S. overall trade with North American countries shot up. Trade with Canada increased from 240 billion dollars in trade in 1994 to 610 billion dollars in 2012-- an 87 percent increase (DeBelius). Trade with Mexico increased from 100 billion dollars in 1994 to 490 billion dollars in 2012, which is a 132% increase (DeBelius). But the free trade also hurt individuals. The manufacturing industry employment rate was decreased because of companies moving to Mexico for cheaper labor (Bathgate). Although Mexico’s trade with the U.S. and Canada has increased, they have not experience a lift in the economy, and there is still widespread poverty. Mexican trade with Canada and the U.S. has increased since the beginning of NAFTA, (Villarreal) prompting that the economy would increase. On the contrary, Mexican economy is still struggling. Mexico ranks 15th out of the 20 Latin American countries in average annual GDP growth, at just 1.2% per year (Weisbrot). And finally, the people of Mexico are still struggling. 20 million Mexicans live in “food