The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a regional trade agreement among the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States traces its beginnings from many paths.
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Throughout the 1980s, economic problems, including heavy international debt burdens, precluded trade liberalization policies in Mexico. U.S. trade negotiations turned north, and by 1989 a U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) had been negotiated, signed and implemented.
Using the FTA as a starting point, the Bush administration once again began seeking a southen link in the North American trade equation, and in 1990 they reached agreement with the Mexican government to pursue the negotiations. Canada joined the negotiations, and by late 1992, the North American Free Trade Agreement was completed, allowing for signature by year's end.
The Clinton administration assumed office in January of 1993, already on record as supporting Congressional ratification of NAFTA. Congressional, labor and environmental interest concerns about the lack of substantive attention to labor and environment issues provided the momentum for the successful negotiation of two attaching, yet parallel trade and labor agreements to NAFTA.
By September of 1993, The North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation between the Government of the United States of America, the Government of Canada and the Government of the Mexican States, was signed, complimented by The North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation Between the Government of Canada, the Government of the United Mexican States and the Government of the United States of America were completed, leading to Congressional approval in November 1993. NAFTA entered into force on January 1, 1994.
The Clinton Administration proposed expanding NAFTA to whole of Latin America during a Miami Summit of Americas in December of 1994. The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) came to the consideration of Congress when President Clinton sent the Export Expansion and Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1997 to the Congress for consideration. The goal of FTAA is to create a comprehensive trading regime, reducing both tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade among the thirty four democratic states of North and South America. Nine separate trade areas are subject to negotiation:
- Agriculture, Market Access
- Investment
- Government Procurement
- Services
- Dispute Settlement
- Intellectual Property
- Competition Policy
- Subsidies, Anti-dumping, and Countervailing Duties
FTAA's first stumbling block was the issue of fast track authority. In brief, the term fast track refers to a procedure whereby Congress agrees to consider any administration negotiated trade agreement as a whole (i.e., they will neither add nor subtract any amendments from the original agreement) and then vote the agreement up or down within a specified time period.
In November 1997, the Senate passed the bill and when support for the bill's passage waned among House Democrats, the bill was withdrawn from formal vote consideration. FTAA negotiations continued through six more rounds of Trade Ministerial talks, ending with the most recent in April of 2001. The Bush Administration will soon request fast track negotiation authority from Congress.
© 1999 Patricia A. Michaels. All rights reserved.