Publication

Twenty years on from the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), this paper assesses how the agreement has worked and whether integration in the region can be enhanced. The author contends that NAFTA has accomplished the goal of increasing trade and investment among its three parties - the US, Canada and Mexico – and that to a large extent it has worked well and as expected. However, he also suggests unresolved disputes between the three countries and their lack of compliance with certain obligations of the treaty hold back the potential of the agreement to bring about further regional integration.