NAFTA

Running head : NAFTA

NAFTA

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[The name of institution appears here] Introduction

NAFTA , when viewed as a framework , can be compared to a constitution The U .S . Constitution , as magnificent as the original document was provided no guarantee about how the separation of powers among the three branches would develop , or what the substance of the first amendment would turn out to be , or even that there would be a common market among the initial and subsequent states . Each of these developments resulted

from an accumulation of decisions , mostly building on what went before The constitution of the former Soviet Union was also a remarkable document , but it turned out to be a facade for repression and not a guide to action . Mexico , despite its formal name of the United States of Mexico , developed a highly centralized form of federalism quite different from that between the federal government and the separate states of the United States of America . Canada 's confederation to this date has not been transformed into a common market in which barriers to trade among the provinces have been eliminated . Trade may be freer between Canada and the United States than between the provinces of Canada

To most observers NAFTA represents 2 ,000 pages of detailed and complicated trade regulations and tariffs , but little that resembles a public policy instrument . Yet , upon looking at the historical relationships between the United States and Mexico and the United States and Canada in particular , and at the pre-NAFTA processes in these countries , it is clear that NAFTA is not only a trade instrument but also a policy mechanism that regulates and cements the sociopolitical and economic integration well underway before the signing . We argue that NAFTA formalized trade and economic processes already linking the three nations , that Michigan companies were some of the leaders in this process , and that the formalization provided by NAFTA enhanced the efficiency of the process

When the indigenous corn growers rebelled in Chiapas , taking the name of Zapatistas , they chose the anniversary of the NAFTA signing as the day to launch their offensive . The choice symbolizes their perception of the Mexican government 's priorities (in domestic as well as international policy ) and their vulnerability in the post-NAFTA era . While the plight of the Zapatistas resulted from endogenous as well as exogenous factors it captured the imagination of many Mexicans because it jarred them into reconsidering the philosophy and potential effects of many of President Salinas 's domestic reforms as he prepared Mexico for NAFTA . These included educational reform , constitutional changes in the agrarian reform laws , massive privatization of state-owned companies restructuring of the banking system , and the creation of new social support programs . Thus , the very potential of NAFTA led to profound domestic and policy changes in Mexico (Schwanen , 1996

Because of the nature of the NAFTA negotiations , side agreements evolved as an attempt to change interdependent labor and environmental regulations in the three countries that had contradictory content...