{"product_id":"naftas-first-decade-accomplishments-and-failures-from-the-mexican-perspective-von-christoph-blieffert","title":"NAFTA's first decade - Accomplishments and failures from the Mexican perspective","description":"\u003cp\u003eSeminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Region: Middle and South America, grade: 1,0, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, language: English, abstract: On January 1, 1994, Mexico, Canada, and the United States established the largest free\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etrade area under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after two and a half\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eyears of negotiation. This agreement created a free trade area on the North American\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esubcontinent with approximately 431 million inhabitants and a GDP of about $15.3 trillion in\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2006. NAFTA represented an important milestone in global trade policy, not just because of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe sheer size of the free trade area it has created, but also with regard to the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecomprehensiveness of the agreement. It covered not just merchandise trade but also issues\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003erelated to investment, environmental policies, energy generation, and labor markets.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNAFTA¿s primary goal was the creation of a free-trade area with free movement of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003egoods, service and capital, but no common market. In order to prevent the abuse of different\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eexternal import tariffs, NAFTA implemented strict rules of origin. NAFTA is focused on\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eeconomic cooperation and does not - in contrast to the European Union - intend a deeper\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epolitical integration or the transfer of national sovereignty to a supranational organization.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe creation of NAFTA is based on the fact that three countries, despite different size,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eeconomic structure, and ethnical background pursued the same goal, the establishment of a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecloser regional economic integration. Differences in economic terms between the member\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecountries can be clarified by the distribution of NAFTA¿s GDP in 2006. More than 86.2\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epercent of NAFTA¿s total GDP was generated by the United States whereas Mexico\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003econtributed only 5.5 percent, which reflects the state of Mexicös economic development.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAdditionally, the Mexican GDP per capita amounted to only 18 respectively 20 percent of the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGDP per capita in the United States and Canada.4 This heterogeneity between the three\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eparticipating countries may be the most significant aspect of this agreement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis paper discusses NAFTA¿s accomplishments and failures after its first decade from\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe Mexican perspective as the agreement has been confronted with skepticism from its\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003einception until today. While Mexican officials understood NAFTA as a measure to modernize\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe country through free trade, critics feared the transformation of the Mexican economy to a huge maquiladora where investors are mainly focused on the exploitation of Mexicös low\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elabor costs.5 Since the beginning of negotiations, Mexicös former President Salinas has\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eraised high expectations on the Mexican side in economic and social terms with his statement:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e¿The whole point of NAFTA for Mexico is to be able to export goods and not people. That\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emeans creating jobs in Mexico.¿ In order to highlight whether NAFTA resulted in economic\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eas well as social improvements, this paper focuses on a comparison of these two aspects.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"aw-variant-hidden-subtitle-div\" id=\"aw-variant-subtitle-9783638955096\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Libri","offers":[{"title":"Softcover - 9783638955096","offer_id":39439245836381,"sku":"9783638955096","price":17.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0940\/0622\/files\/0062f2b8-1f7f-4b5e-bcbe-f16ceb494a9d.jpg?v=1777612731","url":"https:\/\/shop.autorenwelt.de\/en\/products\/naftas-first-decade-accomplishments-and-failures-from-the-mexican-perspective-von-christoph-blieffert","provider":"Autorenwelt Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}