North American

Free Trade Agreement

1994

A North American Free Trade Agreement Logo. From the Wikimedia Photographic Archive. Public Domain.

Finding Freedom

Mexican immigrants are being forced out of their country in order to survive. It is very difficult for these laborers to get legal immigration in the small time window they have to wait. Even when these Illegal Mexican workers do find work in the U.S. they are still being taken advantage of due to the predicament they are being forced into by their countries economic state. NAFTA finally gave Mexican citizens the opportunity to earn an honest living in their own country.

1994 Agreement

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an agreement among Canada, Mexico and the United States of America. Talks of this agreement had birthed the U.S. Canada Free Trade Agreement “which entered into force on January 1, 1989” and excluded Mexico. [3] The U.S. Canada Free Trade Agreement outlawed the act of placing tariffs on a majority of Canadian goods.

By excluding Mexico, tariffs were still placed on good Mexican goods making them less desirable to American and Canadian consumers. The only way that Mexico could compete with the lower priced goods being sold in the U.S. and Canada was to cut the costs of their goods and sell them at a lower price.

One of the main ways that Mexico was able to cut costs was to cut the costs of labor. Workers were laid off and they were also paid drastically less. Citizens had no choice, but to look for work elsewhere. The only other place that these workers could go it the United States. Very few of these workers were able to immigrate legally resulting in the Mexican laborers working in the United States illegally.

Although these workers did earn higher wages, they were often treated poorly by their employers. Some would not be paid their full wages, could not find stable jobs and others would be deported shortly after completing their jobs without receiving any form of payment.

These individuals had no opportunities in their home country to earn a living. Finally, in 1991 the United States began talks with the Mexican government of a free trade agreement. Eventually Canada had joined the talks and finally, “into force in January 1994. NAFTA’s terms, which were implemented gradually through January 2008, eliminated most tariffs on products traded between the three countries.” [1]

Mexican goods would no longer be tariffed in Canada and the United States. Hundreds of thousands of agricultural and auto manufacturing jobs had been made through this agreement. This gave the Mexican workers higher jobs security and pay in their home country. This Ultimately decreased the number of Mexican citizens fleeing their own country in search of employment.

Throughout the life of the NAFTA, particular goods have had tariffs been implemented and some tariffs have been eliminated. Due to certain goods being tariffed, jobs have been lost in Mexico.

President Donald Trump's untested move would send the administration and Congress into a legal wilderness. Taken by Martin Mejia/AP Photo. No known copyright restrictions.

Former President George H.W. Bush at NAFTA Kickoff. From the Wikimedia Photographic Archive. Public Domain.

U.S. - Mexico - Canada Agreement

In 2017, President Trump announced that he planned to protect the jobs in the United States. When NAFTA had been approved, many jobs in the U.S. had been lost due to the cheaper prices that were available in Mexico. President Trump said that he plans to impose the same type of tariffs that had been in place prior to NAFTA being implemented.

President Trump’s argument for these tariffs is “to support higher-paying jobs in the United States and to grow the U.S. economy by improving U.S. opportunities to trade with Canada and Mexico.” [2] If President Trump does indeed succeed in reverting NAFTA back to the way it was prior to 1989, Mexican workers will be forced to look elsewhere for employment once again.

President Trump has demanded to make changes to the NAFTA or else he will pull the U.S. out of the agreement. The U.S. and Mexico have reached agreements regarding changes, but these changes will not go into effect until the year 2020. These workers may want to stay in their home country of Mexico, but in order to survive, they will have to find work in a different country.

Bibliography

Council of Foreign Affairs. (2018, October 1). NAFTA's Economic Impact. Retrieved April 30, 2019, from http://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/naftas-economic-impact
Restuccia, A. (2018, December 02). Trump says he will withdraw from NAFTA, pressuring Congress to approve new trade deal. Retrieved April 30, 2019, from http://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/02/trump-trade-canada-mexico-1006164