Chart of NAFTA Pros and Cons

NAFTA would destroy US and Canadian jobs by making it easier for corporations to relocate to Mexico. NAFTA would undermine wages and workplace safety. Employers could threaten relocation to force workers to accept wage cuts and more dangerous working conditions. NAFTA would destroy farms in the US, Canada and Mexico.

NAFTA has had an overwhelmingly positive effect on the Canadian economy. It has opened up new export opportunities, acted as a stimulus to build internationally competitive businesses, and helped attract significant foreign investment.

NAFTA provisions for Mexican labor were not robust enough to prevent those workers from being exploited.

• U.S. Jobs Were Lost.
• U.S. Wages Were Suppressed.
• Mexico’s Farmers Were Put Out of Business.
• Maquiladora Workers Were Exploited.
• Mexico’s Environment Deteriorated.
• NAFTA Called for Free U.S. Access for Mexican Trucks.

NAFTA’s 6 Negative Effects

• U.S. Jobs Were Lost.
• U.S. Wages Were Suppressed.
• Mexico’s Farmers Went Out of Business.
• Maquiladora Workers Were Exploited.
• Mexico’s Environment Deteriorated.
• Free U.S. Access for Mexican Trucks.
• USMCA.

NAFTA went into effect in 1994 to boost trade, eliminate barriers, and reduce tariffs on imports and exports between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. According to the Trump administration, NAFTA has led to trade deficits, factory closures, and job losses for the U.S.

Benefits of Canada’s FTAs Economic Boost – FTAs eliminate tariffs imposed on most Canadian exports by other parties to the agreements, which contributes to Canadian export competitiveness and helps improve living standards for Canadians.

The loss of these jobs is just the most visible tip of NAFTA’s impact on the U.S. economy. In fact, NAFTA has also contributed to rising income inequality, suppressed real wages for production workers, weakened workers’ collective bargaining powers and ability to organize unions, and reduced fringe benefits.

Most economic analyses indicated that NAFTA was beneficial to the North American economies and the average citizen, but harmed a small minority of workers in industries exposed to trade competition.

6 Benefits of NAFTA

• Quadrupled Trade.
• Lowered Prices.
• Increased Economic Growth.
• Created Jobs.
• Increased Foreign Direct Investment.
• Reduced Government Spending.
• USMCA.

FTAs can help make the export process easier and can offer advantages for all parties involved: Economic Boost – FTAs eliminate tariffs imposed on most Canadian exports by other parties to the agreements, which contributes to Canadian export competitiveness and helps improve living standards for Canadians.

Kimberly Amadeo address the pros and cons of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and she makes the argument that the pros outweigh the cons . Amadeo suggests in this article from June 2019 that the little bit of good that NAFTA has been for everyone collectively, as well as for the economy, outweighs the negative that some small pockets of industry have endured.

Quadrupled Trade. Between 1993 and 2019,trade between the three members quadrupled from$290 billion to$1.23 trillion.

Due to rejection on tariffs, the US economy is now out of control. The deficit in the trading that US faces is almost equal to that of its total exports. The amount invested on exports created debt in the US account balance. The economy is under crisis. Hence, NAFTA is bad.

More specifically, among those who believe foreign trade is an opportunity for growth, 57% believe NAFTA is good, while 37% consider it bad. Among those who think foreign trade is a threat to the economy, 23% consider NAFTA good, and 72% say it is bad.