NAFTA: The North American Free Trade Agreement: A New Frontier in International Trade and Investment in the Americas. By Judith H. Bello, Alan F. Holmer, and Joseph J. Norton. Chicago: The American Bar Association, Section of International Law and Practice/The International Lawyer, 1994. Pp. 435. Index. $85; $65, Section members. - Counseling Emerging Companies in Going International. By Alan S. Gutterman. Chicago: The American Bar Association, Section of International Law and Practice/The International Lawyer, 1994. Pp. 663. Index. $80; $69, Section members.

1995 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 668-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Wallace
Author(s):  
E. Komkova

2014 marked the 20th anniversary of the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which created the world’s largest free trade area. Now it links 470 million people producing more than 19 trillion USD worth of goods and services. The article addresses five issues: the international importance of NAFTA; the economic transformation that has occurred in the USA, Canada and Mexico since the advent of the NAFTA; a “thought experiment” on what American, Canadian and Mexican performance might have been without the NAFTA; the detrimental effect of 9/11 on the North American economic integration; and what’s next? At the time of its signing, NAFTA in many ways was considered a “gold standard” in terms of international free trade agreements. For the first time ever a free trade agreement brought together both developed and developing countries. It also broadened the scope of traditional FTAs by embracing services, foreign investments and property rights, and recognized the importance of workers' and environmental rights and issues. In terms of trade and investment NAFTA has been an undisputed success. Canada ranks as the United States’ largest export market, while Mexico is its second-largest export market. Today – thanks to NAFTA – North Americans not only sell more goods to one another, they also make more things together. For every dollar of goods that Canada and Mexico export to the USA, there are 25 cents’ worth of US inputs into Canadian goods and 40 cents’ worth into Mexican ones. Regardless of the impressive economic record, NAFTA has its critics. The agreement has not underwent a major update since its inception in 1994, i.e. prior to the rise of electronic commerce and, digital services, advanced manufacturing and many other innovative features of the global economy. As far as there is no political appetite to update NAFTA directly, indirect route is a subject of wide speculation. Canada, the USA and Mexico are negotiating partners to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and any benefits conferred by the TPP that go further than NAFTA would take precedence. It is assumed that the TPP should help to modernize NAFTA commitments and upgrade the North American trade and investment.


1997 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kent L. Granzin ◽  
Jeffrey D. Brazell ◽  
John J. Painter

The authors explore influences on Americans’ endorsement of free trade in general, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in particular. Work in the behavioral sciences suggests the value of using constructs that express the nature of persons’ orientation toward their own and other countries to explain their willingness to endorse these concepts. On this basis, the authors created a model that features paths of influence leading to the two Endorsement constructs. They subjected survey data from 240 respondents to structural equation analysis to test the model. The results, using total effects, show that Endorsement of free trade in general and NAFTA in particular are related negatively to Ethnocentrism, Nationalism, Prejudice, and Image of Mexicans, and positively related to Education. These findings hold implications for policymakers who seek to sway public opinion about international trade; they also suggest implications for further research into the subject.


2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-29
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Bledowski

Abstract Expectations run high about the cornucopia of riches which are supposed to fow from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). TTIP is a proposed free trade agreement between the United States and the European Union. It aims to build upon the already sweeping scope of the North American Free Trade Agreement concluded two decades earlier and the 2013 Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which removes 99 % of tariffs between the EU and Canada.1 Te TTIP negotiations were launched in July 2013 with an initial time frame of completion within two years. It is too early to pass judgment about the benefits of the deal simply because its scope is still being framed as of this writing. However, it's possible to shed light on the most likely sticking points during the negotiations, particularly those seen from the U.S. negotiating side. Likewise, it's not too early to draw up interests and concerns of U.S. business. Both are discussed in this paper. The first section takes stock of the likely scope of negotiations. The second section summarizes the view of business gleaned from a survey of corporate executives. The survey was conducted among members of the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation, an education forum for senior managers of large industrial companies.


1996 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Goldstein

While scholars have written much about the role played by international institutions in cooperative behavior among nations, they have not examined the domestic political motives that may lie behind nations' decisions to join such organizations. Two-level games analysis provides a framework for studying domestic politics not as a constraint upon nations that enter into international agreements but as a catalyst for nations to enter into agreements. The dispute settlement procedures of the North American Free Trade Agreement and its predecessor, the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, offer an empirical illustration of this point.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Anis Kacem

Tunisia has signed a free trade agreement with the European Union in 1996, which provides for the reduction of tariff barriers between Tunisia and the EU. In this article, we aim to know and test whether the similarity of the institutional framework has to stimulate international trade between Tunisia and the European Union. In this context, we built a variable called “Institutional distance” to valid the institutional dimension of international trade, near borders effects reported in the literature. To this end, a gravity model was used initially (Tunisia and 21 European countries). Secondly, the estimate shows the existence of spatial autocorrelation. The latter has been corrected using spatial econometrics. The results show that the geographical distance remains more important than the institutions in this type of agreement between north and south shores of the Mediterranean.


1997 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 324-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier ◽  
Laura W. Arnold ◽  
Christopher J. W. Zorn

A critical element of decision making is the timing of choices political actors make; often when a decision is made is as critical as the decision itself. We posit a dynamic model of strategic position announcement based on signaling theories of legislative politics. We suggest that members who receive clear signals from constituents, interest groups, and policy leaders will announce their positions earlier. Those with conflicting signals will seek more information, delaying their announcement. We test several expectations by examining data on when members of the House of Representatives announced their positions on the North American Free Trade Agreement. We also contrast the timing model with a vote model, and find that there are meaningful differences between the factors influencing the timing of position announcements and vote choice. Our research allows analysts to interpret the process leading up to the House action and the end state of that process.


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