In 1987, President of the United States Ronald Reagan and then Prime Minister of Canada, John A. McDonald, signed a free trade agreement that would boost the economies of the two American giants. Such an agreement was intended to stimulate economic activity and aid cooperation along the continent. Inclusion of Mexico in 1994 to establish a continent-wide accord marks the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This contract includes the removal of tariffs, and increase economic investment. However, growing economic opportunity did not necessarily reflect in the lives of the populations, especially in those of Mexicans. Contrary to its initial said aspiration, the accord has proven itself to be generally underwhelming, …show more content…
However, it is also true that above export increase and investment, growth was greater in other Latin American countries that did not have free-trade agreements with the US for all of the 1990s and much of the next decade, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay (citation).
Although NAFTA’s success is often measured by trade and investment flows, these were not the sole terms of the agreement. Producing more jobs, creating broader social objectives and increasing environmental efforts were all promises made by the three pact countries. Former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari even assured that the treaty would give such a boost to Mexican living standards that illegal immigration to the United States would drop …show more content…
Mexican government investment in environmental protection has declined by approximately 45% between 1994 and 2002 (citation). In addition to this, residents on both sides of the US-Mexico border face environmental hazards related to the NAFTA-induced industrial development that has completely outstripped investment in environmental infrastructure, and the alarming increase of air pollution has become a growing concern (citation). When officials from Mexico, but also Canada and the United States, attempt to address question of the environment and tackle related issues they face the threat of important lawsuits authorized under Chapter 11 of NAFTA. Chapter 11 of NAFTA is a very controversial passage of the agreement that authorizes a private individual or a company to sue one of the pact countries if they do anything to restrict profit, even if this includes respecting their own environmental regulation. The ability of a foreign corporation to sue each country’s municipal, provincial or federal governments can largely influence which laws are passed or amended depending on the potential profits they could create. Multiple Mexican laws have even been repealed because of the very costly effects of Chapter 11 (citation). Following one such suit, the Mexican government was ordered to pay nearly 17 million to a California firm that was denied a permit