ABSTRACT
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), traces its origins to the U.S.–Canada Free Trade Agreement, which was signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and implemented on January 1, 1989. Adding Mexico to a North American free trade scenario had obvious implications for all three countries. Three groups in particular, two of them from the United States, were opposed to NAFTA from its inception. The Clinton administration lobbied in support of NAFTA in the US Senate, and the agreement passed in the fall of 1993. NAFTA was supposed to help keep low-wage laborers in Mexico by increasing opportunities for them in their home country, especially along the 2,000-mile border separating the United States from Mexico. NAFTA has increased US interest in Mexico, as seen through direct foreign investment in that country, which shifted upward from 18 billion to 93 billion dollars between 1994 and 2015.
