The political, historical, and economic aspects of the Canadian-American free trade agreement

The Canadian-American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is one of the most ambitious agreements establishing a free trade area under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). It went into effect on Jauary 1, 1989, after being negotiated by the Reagan and Mulroney administrations and having passed through the legislative hurdles in each country. This dissertation is a case study dealing with the trade negotiation process. It examines the emergence of the CAFTA with primary emphasis on the historical and political aspects of the pact and with a secondary emphasis on the economic aspects. It also analyzes the objectives sought in establishing the CAFTA, the ways in which the agreement tried to provide for their attainment, the problems faced in reaching the agreement, the ways in which they were solved, and finally the problems that have arisen in implementing the pact and how they have been dealt with. Finally it should be noted that this study of the CAFTA is concerned with the type of social and economic problems countries will face in the new world that has been emerging since the end of the Cold War. Military competition and conflicts have continued to occur, but they compete for attention with new concerns of the sort that surfaced in the debates over the agreement, especially in Canada. Particularly important were the debates over the loss of culture and political sovereignty in Canada. They may well foreshadow other debates to come.