The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was introduced in 1994 between Canada, Mexico, and the United States to encourage trilateral trade. In 2008, an unrestricted reciprocal sugar trade ...agreement, was implemented between Mexico and the United States as part of NAFTA, which led to a significant decrease in the United States' sugar price. However, critics argue that free trade agreements that reduce trade barriers on products such as sugar threaten public health. This study uses the synthetic control method to investigate the causal impact of the unrestricted sugar trade agreement on sugar consumption and diabetes prevalence in the United States. First, we show that sugar consumption in the United States increased by an average of 16% annually after the agreement was signed, corresponding to 5240g per capita. Second, we show that the crude prevalence of diabetes increased by an average of 1% annually in the United States after the agreement was signed, with an increase of 1% and 2% for men and women, respectively. This unintended consequence of NAFTA has had an estimated economic cost of $324.37 million annually.
A partir das competências constitucionais do Congresso dos Estados Unidos em política externa, das plataformas dos partidos Democrata e Republicano de 1992, bem como dos argumentos a favor e contra a ...implementação do North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), o artigo objetiva compreender e discutir as razões da dificuldade enfrentada por Bill Clinton para aprovar o NAFTA no Congresso dos EUA em 1993. Os resultados das análises dos diferentes grupos domésticos, incluindo os atores Executivo e Legislativo, indicam que posições ideológicas, sobretudo presentes no Partido Democrata, como questões trabalhistas e ambientais, representaram o principal fator de resistência ao NAFTA no Capitólio.Palavras-chave: Congresso; Estados Unidos; NAFTA.ABSTRACTBased on the constitutional powers of the United States Congress in foreign policy, the platforms of the Democratic and Republican parties of 1992, as well as the arguments for and against the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the article aimed to understand and discuss the reasons for Bill Clinton's difficulty in passing NAFTA to the US Congress in 1993. The results of the analyzes of different domestic groups, including the Executive and Legislative actors, indicate that ideological positions, especially present in the Democratic Party, as labor and environmental issues, represented the main factor of resistance to NAFTA in the Capitol. Keywords: Congress; United States; NAFTA. Recebido em: 08 fev. 2021 | Aceito em: 20 set. 2021.
The San Antonio River Basin (SARB) is an ecologically diverse region in South Texas. The city of San Antonio is located within the basin and is the hub of the North American Free Trade Agreement ...(NAFTA). San Antonio, together with other major metropolitan centers in Texas, has experienced rapid population and economic growth over the last thirty years, which accelerated after the implementation of NAFTA in 1994. To assess the environmental implications of this growth in the SARB, we first conducted a land-change analysis using Landsat images from 1984, 1995, and 2010. Then, we analyzed spatiotemporal changes in ecosystem services across the SARB and within three watersheds in Bexar County where the city of San Antonio is located. To estimate changes in ecosystem service values (ESV) during this period, we combined the results of the land-change analysis with a benefit transfer approach using two sets of widely cited ecosystem-service valuation coefficients published in 1997 and 2014 but we modified the urban coefficient from the 2014 publication for low-density and high-density urban areas. When 1997 coefficients were applied, the ESV in the SARB decreased, on average, by $1.2million/year during 1984–1995 and by $1.8million/year during 1995–2010. The ESV in Bexar County decreased, on average, by $0.5million/year and $0.7million/year during the first and second periods, respectively. When the 2014 coefficients and modified urban value coefficients were applied, the ESV in the SARB decreased, on average, by a 27% more during the first period than when the 1997 coefficients were applied, while, ESV increased during the second period by an average of $2.2million/year. This temporally opposite trend in ESV change did not occur in Bexar County, however. Using the 2014 coefficients, ESV in Bexar County decreased 5 times more during the first period and decreased 2.5 times more during the second period than when 1997 coefficients were applied. The differences in ESV trends resulting from the two sets of coefficients can be explained primarily by the different coefficients assigned to urban spaces ($0/ha/year in the 1997 study and $7005/ha/year in the 2014 study). Our results suggest that the value placed on urban areas in the 2014 publication, taken from a single case study and intended primarily for large urban parks, substantially overestimates the ESV of urban space. In our study areas, applying this value, even only to urban green space, led to the improbable conclusion that urbanization had a positive overall effect on the delivery of ecosystem services. While open spaces in urban areas do provide valuable ecosystem services, it is highly unlikely that their value exceeds those provided by less modified ecosystems. The ability to confidently use value coefficients when applying benefit transfer methods to estimate ESVs demands rigorous assessments of their broad applicability.
•We estimate changes in ecosystem services in the San Antonio River Basin, Texas using two sets of valuation coefficients.•Urban expansion in the San Antonio River Basin occurred mostly at the expense of woodlands/forests.•Ecosystem service values decreased substantially since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted in 1994.•The revised urban coefficient reported in Costanza et al. (2014) is highly overestimated.
Using U.S. Census data for 1990 to 2000, we estimate effects of NAFTA on U.S. wages. We look for effects of the agreement by industry and by geography, measuring each industry's vulnerability to ...Mexican imports and each locality's dependence on vulnerable industries. We find evidence of both effects, dramatically lowering wage growth for blue-collar workers in the most affected industries and localities (even for service-sector workers in affected localities, whose jobs do not compete with imports). These distributional effects are much larger than aggregate welfare effects estimated by other authors.
The article deals with the relationship between the United States and Mexico from the perspective of the US national security. The key areas of strategic interest in Mexico on the part of the United ...States include: limiting illegal immigration, fighting drug-related crime, economic cooperation, both bilateral and in the wider international dimension, for example the North American Free Trade Agreement. According to the United States, all three factors and their successful implementation are necessary and constituent elements of the national interest of the United States in its most important scope, that is, in increasing the security of the state. The analysis focuses on the U.S. economic relations with Mexico at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The basis of economic relations between these countries is the North American Free Trade Agreement. The genesis of the NAFTA agreement and its effects on mutual relations in the context of the U.S. national interest and security was presented. Additionally, the reasons for President Donald Trump’s change from NAFTA to USMCA are described, from the perspective of U.S. strategic interests.
Celem artykułu jest zbadanie rozwoju meksykańskiego przemysłu samochodowego po przystąpieniu tego kraju do NAFTA. Szczegółowe cele badawcze zmierzają do ustalenia jak zmieniła się wielkość i ...struktura jego produkcji jaka jej część trafiała na eksport, w tym szczególnie do pozostałych członków NAFTA. Określono jak rozwój produkcji przemysłu samochodowego wpłynął na wzrostu inwestycji zagranicznych, oraz pojawienia się w Meksyku nowych koncernów chcących wejść na rynek państw NAFTA. Przeanalizowano również zmiany w rozmieszczeniu przemysłu samochodowego wykazując, że rosnąca współpraca w ramach NAFTA wpłynęła na jego przesunięcie bliżej granicy z USA. Starano się również ustalić jakie skutki dla sektora motoryzacyjnego wywołała ewolucja NAFTA i powołanie USMCA. W badaniach wykorzystano generalnie dane z lat 1990–2022 pochodzące z oficjalnych źródeł dokumentujących działalność tego sektora oraz spisów ekonomicznych. Przeprowadzone badania wskazują, że wejście do NAFTA było dużym impulsem rozwojowym dla sektora motoryzacyjnego w Meksyku. Jego dynamiczny rozwój wiązał się z przesunięciem produkcji na północ, zmianą w strukturze produkcji oraz większą specjalizacją eksportową. Sukcesy tego sektora były jednym z impulsów do renegocjacji podpisanych porozumień i powstania USMCA, które w zamyśle miało spowolnić i ograniczyć rozwój tego sektora w Meksyku. Pełne skutki funkcjonowania USMCA trudno w pełni ocenić gdyż jego wprowadzenie zbiegło się z pandemią Covid-19, która bardzo negatywnie wpłynęła na funkcjonowanie tego sektora. W tej sytuacji rekomenduje się przeprowadzenie dalszych badań, które pozwoliłyby z dłuższej perspektywy czasowej ustalić, które zmiany wynikają z nowych realiów funkcjonowania USMCA, a które były skutkami pandemii Covid-19.
Recent research on international trade focuses on firm-product-level heterogeneity and the role of uncertainty in shaping international trade. This article contributes to the literature by examining ...product-level dynamics within firms in the context of Mexican trade integration under NAFTA. The data show intense product churning within firms and confirm the existence of within-firm product heterogeneity. The data indicate that new exporters enter foreign markets with a small number of varieties, most of which were previously sold at home, and with a small export small volume. The data also suggest that export discoveries are relatively rare and are imitated within a short period of time.
We build into a Ricardian model sectoral linkages, trade in intermediate goods, and sectoral heterogeneity in production to quantify the trade and welfare effects from tariff changes. We also propose ...a new method to estimate sectoral trade elasticities consistent with any trade model that delivers a multiplicative gravity equation. We apply our model and use our estimated elasticities to identify the impact of NAFTA's tariff reductions. We find that Mexico's welfare increases by 1.31%, U.S.'s welfare increases by 0.08%, and Canada's welfare declines by 0.06%. We find that intra-bloc trade increases by 118% for Mexico, 11% for Canada, and 41% for the U. S. We show that welfare effects from tariff reductions are reduced when the structure of production does not take into account intermediate goods or input-output linkages. Our results highlight the importance of sectoral heterogeneity, intermediate goods, and sectoral linkages for the quantification of the welfare gains from tariffs reductions.
The unobserved responses of individual polluters are often used to rationalize the aggregate effects of international trade on the environment. In this paper, I provide the first evidence of these ...responses. I estimate the effects of NAFTA on the emissions of particulate matter (PM10) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) from manufacturing plants in the United States. My findings suggest that trade liberalization led to significant reductions of these pollutants at affected plants. On average, nearly two-thirds of the reductions in PM10 and SO2 emissions from the U.S. manufacturing sector between 1994 and 1998 can be attributed to trade liberalization following NAFTA.
•I study the effects of NAFTA on the pollution emitted by U.S. manufacturing plants.•NAFTA significantly reduced emissions of PM10 and SO2.•Reductions are driven by within-plant responses to NAFTA.•My estimates suggest that trade played a key role in the clean-up of the U.S. manufacturing sector.
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