1.4

• NAFTA


  North American Free Trade Agreement, enacted in 1994, created a free trade zone for Mexico, Canada, and the United States
• As of January 1 2008, all tariffs and quotas were eliminated on U.S. exports to Mexico and Canada under NAFTA
• Creation of NAFTA


  Caused manufacturing jobs to transfer from developed nations like Canada or US to less developed nations (Mexico) to reduce cost of capital and product
• NAFTA


  Loss of job opportunities for people of developed nations
• Canada's exports to US

  76% of Canadian exports go to US
• Jobs in Canada dependent on trade with US

  About a quarter of the jobs in Canada
• If NAFTA is eradicated or changed


  Devastating to the economy of Canada since their economy relies mostly on the US through NAFTA
• Negative impacts of NAFTA

  • Excessive pollution
  • Loss of more than 682,000 manufacturing jobs
  • Exploitation of workers in Mexico (low wages, less benefits)
  • Moving Mexican farmers out of business due to dropped product prices
• Positive impacts of NAFTA

  • Lowered prices by removing tariffs
  • Opened up new opportunities for small and medium sized businesses to establish
  • Quadrupled trade between the three countries
  • Created 5 million US jobs
• Agricultural Revolution


  First economic change, when people learned to domesticate plants and animals, realizing it was more productive than hunter-gatherer societies
• Farming


  Helped societies build surpluses, allowing not everyone to spend time producing food since they can buy it from farmers, leading to permanent settlements, trade networks and population growth
• Industrial Revolution


  Second economic revolution, rise of industry with new economic tools like steam engines, manufacturing and mass production
• Industrial Revolution


  • Factories popped up and changed how work functioned, workers became wage laborers and more specialized, productivity went up, standards of living rose, access to wider variety of goods
• Industrial Revolution


  Economic casualties - workers in factories, mainly poor women and children, worked in dangerous conditions for low wages
• Greater productivity from Industrial Revolution

  Greater wealth for industrialists (robber barons) but also greater economic inequality
• Industrial Revolution


  Labor unions formed, leading to minimum wage laws, reasonable working hours, and worker safety regulations