Número 22

Primavera - Verano 2013

Abstract

In 1990, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the then President of the United States George H. W. Bush, started negotiating a comprehensive bilateral free trade agreement, which Canada joined one year later. The treaty, named the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), was one of the most ample and ambitious free trade agreements that existed at the time, covering the elimination of tariffs on trade, clauses that incorporated foreign direct investment, and mechanisms on the peaceful resolution of disputes, intellectual property and rules of origin. As a one of a kind treaty, many regarded with doubt the effect it would have on the three economies, some opposed it on the basis of job losses due to the disparity of the three economies, and others praised it, viewing it as a key tool for boosting trade, investment, and the overall productivity of the region ́s economy.