Answer:
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a free trade zone between Canada, the United States and Mexico. The Treaty allows reducing costs to promote the exchange of goods between the three countries, thus encouraging the growth of trade in North America.
Explanation:
On June 10, 1990, Canada, the United States and Mexico agreed to establish a free trade agreement. On February 5, 1991, the NAFTA negotiations began, and the Trade Agreement was signed by US President George HW Bush on December 8, 1992, by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, on December 11, 1992 and by Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, on December 14, 1992. Likewise, the three countries signed it on December 17, 1992 and it became effective as of January 1, 1994, when the ratification procedure was complied with by the legislative branch of each country that signed it.
When the NAFTA was signed, a 15-year deadline was set for the total elimination of customs barriers between the three countries. In addition, it was agreed that existing restrictions on the trade of various products, including motor vehicles and parts for these, computers, textiles and agriculture, should be removed. The treaty also protects intellectual property rights (patents, copyrights and trademarks) and highlighted the elimination of investment restrictions among the three countries. Measures relating to the protection of workers and the environment were added later as a result of supplementary agreements signed in 1992.
Unlike the European Union, NAFTA does not create a set of supranational governmental bodies or create a body of laws above the national laws of each country. NAFTA is a treaty under international law. Under the laws of the United States, it is classified as an executive agreement of Congress, which reflects a peculiar sense of the term "treaty" in the constitutional law of the United States, where it is not subject to the practices of international law or subject to the laws of other states.
