NAFTA Debate

NAFTA, in simplistic terms, encouraged the evolution of tariff-free trade among those North American nations sharing common borders with the United States: Mexico and Canada. As each of the countries involved has its own traditions, culture and form of government, so, too, do the barriers to foreign imports and protectionism of domestic industry reflect those factors. Enforcement of law, protection of the business community and environmental concerns vary as well (Elliott 29-30).

NAFTA was negotiated over a period of years beginning in the mid-1980s, when Republican Party administrations dominated U.S. foreign policy decision-making. Ostensibly pro-business, it was George Bush's presidency that concluded the tri-country NAFTA negotiations. As its guiding principle, Bush's negotiating team maintained the classic conservative stance that any lessening of government involvement in commerce - particularly the re

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atic president (Clift & Cohn 29). As NAFTA was a complex economic package involving a number of subtle international trade issues, debated boiled down to the popular simplification: Would NAFTA cost American jobs by encouraging U.S. businesses to "run away" to Mexico? That the issue was largely beside-the-point in terms of the reality of the U.S.-Mexican-international trade environment did not stop opposition forces from rallying around the implications of a negative answer (Samuelson, "Great Fog Over NAFTA" 54-55). Then Ross Perot and his "People for the American Way" movement entered the picture in opposition to NAFTA. Traditionally, the U. S. political system has not been comfortable with third-party entities; they are usually absorbed within the two mainstream parties. Perot and his self-initiated/financed "People for the American Way" movement has at times appeared to accept that reality and tried to be a power player in the Republican Party. But the Texas billionaire has often felt personally rebuffed by both George Bush and Bill Clinton. Thus, although in 1992 Ross Perot's original impulse was to support NAFTA, his personality and populist perceptiveness latched onto the grassroots rejection of the "What's good f
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Approximate Word count = 1815
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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