NAFTA and Maquiladoras Essay -- Essays Papers

NAFTA and Maquiladoras The join American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which became effective on January 1, 1994, is a comprehensive, rules-based agreement designed to promote free-trade among the United States, Mexico and Canada (NAFTA Forum,1998). Although the agreement was make between three countries, it was largely the inclusion of Mexico around which most of the oppositional flip over was centered (Mayer, 1998). Canada is a modern, developed nation very similar in culture and miserliness to the United States. Mexico, however, is con lookred a developing nation with an economy much weaker than the United States. Still, a prior trade agreement did personify between the United States and Mexico. Therefore, in order to properly evaluate NAFTA, we must(prenominal) also take into account that prior trade agreement, the Border industrialization Program (BIP) of 1965. The increase in maquiladoras on the U.S.-Mexico border, and its constitutive(a) problems, is a position r esult of the BIP (Blank & Haar, 1998). The overall impact of the BIP on the U.S.-Mexico border and the maquiladora industry has been manifold, resulting in increases in maquiladoras, border population, environmental pollution and human social and health concerns. It is also important to recognize that prior to ratification of NAFTA, the Clinton Administration demanded, nether pressure by environmental and labor groups, the attachment of two side agreements concerning labor and the environment. Although still too early to tell, NAFTA appears to be amending some of the inherent problems which exist along the U.S.-Mexico border. Opposition to NAFTA must be placed in some historical context. During the 1980s many American manufacturing jobs were being exported to Mexican maquilad... ... Legal Issues. easy at http//www.heritage.org/library/categories/trade/bg936.html Viewed on 3/19/99. 8. Environment. 1998. United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce. http//www.usmcoc.org/en vironment.html Viewed on 2/27/99. 9. NAFTA Partners draw close Agreement on Transboundary Environmental Impact Assesment. 1999. Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Available at http//www.cec.org/new/Data.cfm 10. McGuiness, Michael J. 1998. The Landscape of Labor rightfulness Enforcement in North America An Examination of Mexicos Labor Regulatory Policy and Practice. Law and Policy in International Business. 11. Sweatshop Watch. 1998. U.S. Labor Department Review Finds devolve on Bias at Border Plants in Mexico. Available at http//www.sweatshopwatch.org/swatch/headlines/1998/sexbias_jan98.html Viewed on 3/27/99.