NAFTA

Britannica Concise

Print Article :: Email Article :: Cite Article

in full North American Free Trade Agreement

Trade pact signed by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico in 1992, which took effect in 1994.

Inspired by the success of the European Community in reducing trade barriers among its members, NAFTA created the world's largest free-trade area. It basically extended to Mexico the provisions of a 1988 Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement, calling for elimination of all trade barriers over a 15-year period, granting U.S. and Canadian companies access to certain Mexican markets, and incorporating agreements on labour and the environment. See also General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; World Trade Organization.

Britannica Store

New! 2007 Encyclopædia Britannica Print Set
Revised, updated, and still unrivaled.

New! Britannica 2007 Ultimate DVD/CD-ROM
The world's premier software reference source.

Great Books of the Western World
The greatest written works in one magnificent collection.

More on "NAFTA" from Britannica Concise:

abbreviation - Shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole.

Baja California - State (pop., 2000: 2,487,367), northern Baja California peninsula, northwestern Mexico.

Mulroney, (Martin) Brian - Prime minister of Canada (1984-93).

trade agreement - Any contractual arrangement between states concerning their trade relations.

APEC - Trade group established in 1989 in response to the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the advent of regional economic blocs (such as the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area) in other parts of the world.

More on "NAFTA" from the 32 Volume Encyclopædia Britannica:

North American Free Trade Agreement - trade pact signed in 1992 that would gradually eliminate most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services passing between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The pact would effectively create a free-trade bloc among the three largest countries of North America.

international trade - In 1992, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It took effect in 1994 and created one of the largest free trade areas in the world.

Business and Industry Review - Potentially profound changes for the world textile industry came with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Optimists in the U.S. saw NAFTA as a further step in the emergence of a world free-trade area and as an opportunity to establish production bases in Mexico, where manufacturing costs were likely to be very much lower than in the U.S. itself. The pessimists worried ...

CANADA - Peacekeeping constituted a major theme in Canada's foreign policy in 1993. The amount of money Canada had spent on peacekeeping activities in the former Yugoslavia approached $1 billion in 1993, or almost 20 times the amount spent on humanitarian aid. The 1,200 troops the country had sent to Croatia in March 1992 were transferred to central Bosnia in February to escort relief supplies past ...

international relations - Throughout 1993 and 1994 Republicans accused Clinton of naivete and vacillation. Opinion polls showed that the American people lacked confidence in U.S. foreign policy, while European and Asian leaders were dismayed by what they saw as weak leadership from Washington. On issues of international trade, however, Clinton scored major successes, albeit with Republican help. As befitted a president ...

To cite this article:

MLA style:
"." Encyclopædia Britannica. . Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. <>.
APA style:
. (). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved , , from Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

Search for "NAFTA" at Encyclopædia Britannica Online for all this plus dictionary definitions, magazine articles, and more.

Britannica Concise is a complete, 28,000 article, single-volume encyclopedia from the editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. Visit Encyclopædia Britannica Online to access the complete Encyclopædia Britannica, the Britannica Student Encyclopedia, a world atlas, interactive timelines, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, hundreds of magazine titles, daily features and much more.