18. Dezember 2020

The North American Free Trade Agreement Was Primarily What Kind Of Cooperative Effort

Note: Exports and imports from another country represent the percentage of the country`s total trade. This first free trade agreement between the United States was much less ambitious than the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement a few years later and even smaller than NAFTA, as noted below. The IFTA contained only 23 articles and four annexes. It did not cover most agricultural trade or agricultural investment, but it did apply to certain services and intellectual property that far exceeded the 1947 GATT.52 U.S. trade with its NAFTA partners has more than tripled since the agreement came into force. It has grown faster than trade with the rest of the world. Since 1993, trade with Mexico has grown faster than with Canada or with non-NAFTA countries. In 2011, trilateral trade between NAFTA partners reached the $1 trillion threshold. In 2016, Canada was the largest market for U.S. exports, while Mexico came in second. In 2016, the two countries accounted for 34% of total U.S. exports.

In 2016, Canada and Mexico ranked second and third respectively in U.S. imports. These two countries accounted for 26% of U.S. imports.43 The role of the Internet in international trade has increased significantly since nafta emerged more than 20 years ago. While technological progress has profoundly changed the way businesses trade and operate across international borders, some companies say that new barriers have also been created that do not address existing trade rules. NAFTA parties may consider discussing issues related to the cross-border transmission of information electronically or the forced location of data centres. Such provisions could provide North American companies with greater flexibility in processing and storing data relevant to their operations. Some of these issues have been addressed in the TPP. NAFTA was supplemented by two other regulations: the North American Environmental Cooperation Agreement (NAAEC) and the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC). These tangential agreements should prevent companies from moving to other countries in order to use lower wages, more moderate health and safety rules and more flexible environmental rules.