North American Free Trade Agreement

What is NAFTA?

The North American Free Trade Agreement, also known as NAFTA, began on January 1, 1994, and effectively removed most of the barriers to trade and investment between the North American countries of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Since its inception, NAFTA has been breaking down trade tariffs across the continent, including on agricultural products like dairy. With an objective of creating total free trade between the three countries, NAFTA sought full realization of its goal by January 1, 2008.

 

U.S. Agricultural, Manufacturing, and Services Companies and Associations Urge Obama to Resolve Mexican Retaliatory Tariff Dispute

On April 7, 2009, NMPF joined 140 other agricultural, manufacturing, and services companies and associations in a letter to President Obama that urged him to work with Congress and quickly resolve an international trucking issue that led to retaliatory tariffs on $2.4 billion worth of U.S. manufactured and agricultural exports. Due to the termination of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Cross Border Trucking Pilot Program with Mexico, the U.S. was in violation of its bilateral trade obligations with Mexico on international trucking. On March 19, the Mexican government instituted retaliatory tariffs.

The letter is available here.

 

Coalition of U.S. Food and Agricultural Organizations Oppose Managed Trade with Mexico

In a letter sent to the full House and Senate on February 6, 2008, NMPF and other U.S. food and agricultural organizations asked Congress to not include managed trade with Mexico in the 2008 Farm Bill or any other legislation. House and Senate Farm Bill conferees had been considering a proposal to manage trade in sugar with Mexico. However, adopting managed trade with Mexico would have effectively amended the free trade provisions of NAFTA by instituting export and import restraints. The proposal also contained other international trade violations that would have subjected the U.S. to challenges and unraveled the free trade opportunities that the U.S. agricultural sector worked so hard to achieve.

The full letter is available here.