The New NAFTA

Makailyn Craft, Reporter

The North American Free Trade Agreement,which went into effect in 1989, was negotiated between the United States, Mexico, and Canada to remove the barriers to the exchange of goods and services.  It will soon be replaced by USMCA (United States Mexico Canada agreement). USMCA is supposed help American agribusinesses by giving Americans better access to Canada’s dairy market. However, USMCA did not restore the transparency (meaning it is not showing where the meat was born, raised and slaughtered) of meat products, despite many organizations, like Public Justice and Fox News, begging for it. An additional goal of USMCA is to make it possible for more cars and truck parts to be made in United States. There’s also a new rule that a significant percentage of the work done on the car must be completed by workers earning at least $16 an hour, or about three times what the typical Mexican autoworker makes. Car prices may raise because of this which makes this a controversial concept.    Most Americans hope USMCA will do much better than NAFTA.