NAFTA's Impact on North America

"A thorough evaluation of NAFTA in all of its ramifications [by] 16 specialists--4 from the United States, 2 from Canada, and 10 from Mexico.... [This] study will be extremely useful not only to those interested in the economic, trade, social, political, and security effects of NAFTA, but also to those interested in the likely consequences of other broad regional trade agreements."--Carla A. Hills, U.S. Trade Representative, 1989-1993

This volume covers many of the political, social, and nontrade changes that have accompanied NAFTA over the past 10 years, and the authors project what to expect in the next 10 in such areas as labor, education, business, and security. NAFTA has not cured all internal ills in the three countries concerned nor solved all the problems among them. Trade has flourished, but has not abolished trade disputes. Intergovernmental problems still arise between the NAFTA countries--as they do between all countries, no matter how friendly--but they are now discussed and, for the most part, have become more amenable to satisfactory compromise. This is true for such thorny issues as environmental protection and drug trafficking, and soon perhaps for migration. The authors assess NAFTA for what it is--a trade and investment agreement that has succeeded in its central purpose and in the process has brought three countries together in a variety of noneconomic areas.

Sidney Weintraub holds the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy at CSIS and is professor emeritus at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.