About fifteen years ago, the United States entered into an agreement with its neighboring countries, Canada and Mexico. With the incarnation of this intercontinental free trade agreement; the United States, acting as an intermediary, would not only increase trade productivity for itself, but also grant its sister nations to the north and south the same benefits. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) benefits America because it encourages the expansion of job opportunities, abolishes taxes and tariffs that can restrict the flow of imports and exports, and provides States with goods and services at lower cost, thus generating profits. to increase exponentially. To put you in the right frame of mind, it's 1991. George HW Bush is president, Operation Desert Storm has come and gone, and before the signing of NAFTA, the only trade agreement that resembles it in North America was the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA). As CUSFTA entered its first year, President Bush prepared to launch another trade agreement involving the United States and Mexico. Talks are already underway between President Bush and Mexican President Carlos Salinas De Gortari to define the agreement. Canada was beginning to raise concerns within its own administration that this new US-Mexico trade deal could push CUSFTA into the background. The main campaign argument of these alarmists was that this deal with Mexico would result in a reduction of cheap Mexican labor relative to Canadian labor, thereby slowing trade with Canada. Thus, with this fear firmly gripping major Canadian political and economic leaders, Canada requested to participate in what would become NAFTA in 1994. In addition to the objective which...... middle of paper. ..... Inst For Intl Economics. NAFTA: A decade of success | Office of the United States Trade Representative. (nd). Office of the United States Trade Representative. Retrieved July 14, 2010 from http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/fact-sheets/archives/2004/july/nafta-decade-successSICE: Trade Agreements: North-North Free Trade Agreement American. (nd). SICE, the OAS Foreign Trade Information System. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from http://www.sice.oas.org/trade/nafta/naftatce.aspThe Case Against Free Trade: GATT, NAFTA, and the Globalization of Corporate Power (An Earth Island Press Book). (1993). California: North Atlantic Books. Radcliffe, B. (nd). The basics of tariffs and trade barriers. Investopedia.com - Your source for investing education. Retrieved July 17, 2010 from http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economys/08/tariff-trade-barrier-basics.asp