NAFTA in the New Millennium

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University. He
is the author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable
Kingdom, Chile and the Nazis, and The Diplomacy of War: The Case of
Korea.

This is a book for historians and economists. The editors invited 20
writers or pairs of writers to prepare articles about the way the North
American Free Trade Agreement has functioned, is functioning, is likely
to function in future, and could be functioning. The writers include
Canadians, Americans, and Mexicans. Maps and charts accompany the text.

The editors themselves note that NAFTA falls short of the European
Union. All three member countries maintain border controls (and, for
that matter, their own currencies). Workers do not have the right to
follow their jobs to another member country. There is nothing comparable
to the European Parliament, where representatives from each member state
design laws applicable to all. Nevertheless, since the inception of
NAFTA on January 1, 1994, bilateral trade between any one NAFTA country
and any other has significantly increased.

Two Canadian professors, Kenneth Norrie and Douglas Owram, summarize
NAFTA’s impact on Canada. Before the Canada–U.S. Free Trade
Agreement took effect in 1989, they note, the international border had a
major impact. Since then it has become less than it was but remains
significant. Before NAFTA, Mexico and Canada conducted little bilateral
trade. Between 1997 and 2000, their bilateral trade increased 50
percent. In 2000, Canada bought more from Mexico than from Japan. There
appear to be non-economic consequences as well. Before NAFTA, the number
of students at the University of Alberta enrolled in Spanish courses was
20 percent of those studying French. By 2000–01, the figure was 90
percent, attributable to increased enrolment in Spanish courses and a
reduced demand for French.

Professor Alejando Moreno polled Mexicans on free trade. A majority
supported the principle, with a plurality approving of NAFTA itself.
Three other writers determined that Canadians remain divided on the
issue, as they were at the time of the 1988 parliamentary election,
which candidates fought largely on that issue. Another two declared the
U.S. public “mildly positive” about NAFTA. Yet Canada and the United
States have lost manufacturing jobs to Mexico, while Mexican wages have
declined.