International Agriculture and Trade Report: NAFTA, 1999

Overview

NAFTA is best viewed as a continuing process of economic integration among the three member countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States. As NAFTA begins its sixth year, it is clear that the agreement has significantly affected all three countries. At the end of 1998, U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico were 47 percent above the pre-NAFTA (1993) level. In 1997 and 1998, U.S. agricultural exports to its NAFTA partners were up 3.3 and 10.0 percent, respectively, compared with exports to the rest of the world, which declined 7.3 and 14.6 percent. From 1993 through 1998 U.S. agricultural imports from Canada and Mexico were up 69 percent, while those from the rest of the world were up 38 percent.