North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its consequences

Résumé du document

The agreement NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) defines a free trade area of 430 million inhabitants trained by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Signed by the presidents of these three countries on October 7th, 1992 in San Antonio (Texas), the treaty came into effect on January 1st, 1994. This agreement is intended to facilitate the trades and the investments between the partners. It includes a vast program of elimination of the customs duties and reduction of the non-tariff barriers. NAFTA comes along with measures relative to the investment, to the services, to the intellectual property, to the competition and to the regulation of the various trades and investments.

Extraits

[...] Only the North American products benefit from the deletion of price lists (preferential treatment); the goods imported by third country undergo a tariff classification. The cultural industries, the edition, the cinema, the sounds, the media are also excluded (what dispute the United States) that guaranteed a conservation of the intellectual property. The sensitive sectors of the agriculture, the automobile and the textile industry are the object of calendar of the most progressive liberalizations. As regards the regulations of the disputes, each of the countries preserves in any plenitude its own laws of international appeals, but these appeals are examined by the special groups of arbitration of NAFTA, the decisions of which are enforceable. [...]

[...] What are the consequences of the agreement NAFTA within the relations the United States, Mexico and Canada? Is it necessary to interpret NAFTA as a new instrument of dominion of the United States? Or needs on the contrary to see in this agreement a project of real economic integration between two developed countries and an emerging country? Today, what balance sheet can we do of this experiment? I. NAFTA, the agreement gathering dissimilar strong countries 1. History and institutions governing NAFTA NAFTA plans a progressive dismantling of the customs duties over a period of ten years. [...]

[...] Even if it is even early to speak about success or about defeat, we have good reasons for believing that three member countries of NAFTA should take advantage of this agreement, towards the evolutions and the figures. Already, another stake is present: that of its release. Indeed, the NAFTA wishes to extend in the Latin American countries, going from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Bibliography Website - http://www.fina-nafi.org/fr/integ/alena.asp?langue=fr&menu=integ - http://www.nafta-sec-alena.org/DefaultSite/index.html - http://membres.lycos.fr/cyberbobline/ALENA.html - http://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/T952280/A_L_E_N_A.htm - http://www.alenaaujourdhui.org/faq_fr.asp#faq-3 - http://www.actuenvironnement.com/ae/dictionnaire_environnementdefinition /ALENA French Books - Le continent nord-américain à l'heure de l'ALENA, Jacqueline Beaujeu Garnier, Sedes - Etats-Unis, Mexique, Canada, trois voies vers une intégration. [...]

[...] The Unites States represent for Canada of its imports and of its exports. The exports of Mexico towards his partners (Canada and United States) are higher than in 1993. Towards these figures, it is clear that the United States spread their sphere of influence and have a dominating weight in the business of his neighbours. Today, if three countries realize more half of their exchanges between them, we observe an increasing stowage of Canada and Mexico in the American economy. [...]

[...] Canada, as for him, wishes to obtain access to the Mexican market in the same way as the United States. This agreement is also the opportunity to create zone of North American coprosperity. But its main objective remains to keep the experiences of the agreement of the ALE (signed in 1989 between Canada and the United States).Canada does not want to be eliminated from a promising market and wishes to remain an attractive country. Finally, Mexico testifies of more ambitious objectives. Indeed, NAFTA turns out to be a means to pursue its economic opening. [...]