North American Free Trade Agreement

Gregory Gonzalez

Professor Montelongo

University 1301

04-17-08

NAFTA

On the 1st of January 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect. It eliminated all the major tariffs amongst the countries , of the United States, Canada and Mexico. It has been considered positive by all the major outcomes, but nobody takes in consideration what is really happening. Mexico being our brother country is being negatively impacting its resources, land, and people . Cheap labor and awful working conditions keeps America sky high in its economy. There are many ways that one can change this agreement and make it just for the economy of each country.

NAFTA was first created with a different illusion and an aspect of making the North American economy a beautiful place to be in. People would have the cheapest foods, electronics and cars because everything would be tax less and we would help each other manufacture it. Even though his sounds relevant it never became this way, everything in this agreement was stepped down and though twice about by the mexican people. American being as stubborn opens new maquiladoras and creates a rapid growth phenomenom near cities where theses sweat shops quickly open(McLymont, pg3). Canada never gets contemplated with this agreement, reason being is because it is closer to America and their system is also running on the buying and shipment of Mexican goods(Fanjul, Fraser,pg3).

Mexico has always been under the United States control. From the land we took in the past wars from them to the agreements they sign to be friendly. The NAFTA agreement wich promised to trade the products for free from Canada to the United States and Mexico had many arguments to come. It was suppose to lower tarrifs and keep equal trade beetween North America(McLymont, pg6). But nobody knew that trade from the United States was going to be demanding and cause many issues from labor to land therefore being negatively impacted. Now the mexican workers and farmers have to deal with issues that the United States created. They struggle in these working conditions and dont know what to do. Theyre only bet is leaving theyre country and to seek a better lifestyle.

Mexico is the country which NAFTA underpins because its beautiful lands and unique soil, wich they have been growing products over thousands years. The united states has a big increase in importing of goods, but behind all this there is an affect on the farmers, workers and land(Fanjul, Fraser,pg2). Millions of people are migrating across the border to escape poverty, many of them hoping to reach the United States. Theyre is a southern mexican state named Chiapas wich is known for its beutiful land and agriculture, 70 percent of the rural population is now in extreme poverty(Fanjul, Fraser,pg4). They struggle everyday from creating their food from scratch and just seeking out for survival. The United States is now running over Mexico in a rough way expecting more and more. The border cities like Juarez, Tijuana, Sonora now have new maquiladoras and make mexicans struggle in a low income way to get more exports. In the other side we have the nicest products in an expensive price.

A big issue right now in mexico is the corn product, since 1993 before the agreement its price had gone down 70 percent(Fiess, Lederman, pg2). This means that the declining incomes now made an increase in poverty. Farmers had grown this product and were forced to sell it at a very cheap price, not even enough to get trough a day(Fanjul, Fraser,pg3). The united states uses this product everyday, meaning from corn syrup, corn starch or just corn itself but paying a climbed 50 precent increase prize(Fanjul, Fraser,pg3). Many members of the US congress warned mexico that renegotiating NAFTA would be unaceptable. Over 15 million mexican farmers depend on this product and dont know what to do. People cannot even afford healthcare and cant afford to raise theyre famillies. A way of retaliating to protect theyre lands and goods are to form a group of rebels, wich are known as guerillas. Now the state of Chiapas has problems with the Mexico goverment as its people are still struggling.

Since the NAFTA rules allow the United States market to enter the Mexican market now the Mexican business has run low. Wal-Mart and other big corporations have been placed all across Mexico selling ultra cheap goods(Fanjul, Fraser,pg7). The ultracheap product are being imported from China (they decide to sell anything at a lowcost.) An estimated 28,000 businesses have been eliminated from the Mexican market. Meaning that the ultracheap products from the large corporationg are cheaper than the mexican market. But now people loose theyre job's once again