Why did the U.S. sign that NAFTA agreement?

Answer 1

Oh boy - have you asked the $1 million question. And, there's no one answer.

The North American Free Trade Agreement was negotiated by Canada, Mexico and the US in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was signed, and went into effect in January 1, 1994.

NAFTA was not revolutionary, but evolutionary. The US-Canada Free Trade Agreement which was negotiated in the mid-1980s, and became effective in 1988. The agreement phased out tariffs and other non-monetary trade barriers between the US and Canada. Talks between Canada, the US and Mexico actually pre-date the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement. Those multilateral talks began in 1986. NAFTA, negotiated primarily during the George H.W. Bush Administration, was the culmination of those earlier bilateral talks, combined into a multilateral agreement. Before NAFTA was finalized and signed, William Clinton was elected. President Clinton continued the talks, finalized the agreement and signed the agreement on behalf of the US in 1993 with Congressional passage in December 1993. NAFTA became effective January 1, 1994.

The primary goal was economic - create a very large, unfettered market for trade between North and South America. While the on the surface NAFTA would appear to involve only Mexico, the US and Canada, for practical purposes the agreement opened up markets throughout the Western Hemisphere. Several bi-lateral treaties involving Mexico and other Latin American countries, and US bilateral agreements with certain South American countries were in place at the time NAFTA was enacted. Provisions in those bi-lateral treaties allowed allowed NAFTA Canadian/US/Mexican goods and services flow through to non-NAFTA countries and vice versa.

Whether NAFTA has fulfilled its stated goal is without question - economic activity in the Western Hemisphere grew at a considerably higher rate than in the tariff/trade restriction years.

Whether the impacts of NAFTA on "the average American" (whatever that is supposed to be) were a net positive or negative is open to debate. Hundred of thousands of American factory workers permanently lost their jobs when manufacturing facilities were packed up and moved to Mexico because of lower labor costs.