What is nafta and how does it affect the us Canada and Mexico?

Answer 1

It is an agreement that lowers or completely eliminates import and export tariffs of products traded among the three countries involved -- the United States, Canada and Mexico. The aim of the trade agreement has been economic integration and lower costs of operation for all the business covered by the treaty.

NAFTA's results are quite controversial, to say the least. Some would say it helped the economy, while others accuse the treaty of destroying the livelihoods of millions of people.

Some results include a jump in trade between the United States and Mexico from $81.4 billion in 1993 (pre-NAFTA) up to $534.4 billion in 2014 and a steady increase of foreign direct investment into Mexico, from $4.3 billion in 1993 up to $42.1 billion by 2014.

However, the most serious unintended consequence of NAFTA is the loss of Mexican rural jobs due to competition against the highly-subsidized American and Canadian producers. This in turn triggered a new wave of illegal Immigration into the United States by these displaced laborers: in 1990 there were 4.3 million immigrants of Mexican origin within the United States -- including legal and illegal immigrants alike. By the year 2000, this number jumped to 9.2 million; most of them, not surprisingly, are from Mexican agricultural states, such as Oaxaca, Michoacan and Guerrero.