Overview
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a comprehensive
trade-liberalization agreement among Canada, Mexico,
and the United States. NAFTA progressively eliminates most tariff
and nontariff barriers to trade between these countries over
a transition period that began on January 1, 1994 and concludes
on January 1, 2008. The agreement also facilitates cross-border
investment, requires that sanitary and phytosanitary standards
for trade be scientifically based, and expands cooperation regarding
the environment and labor.
ERS is engaged in a wide range of research activities concerning
NAFTA and its member countries. ERS is the principal USDA agency
involved in the preparation of the Department's Congressionally
mandated NAFTA report. ERS also conducts research about various
NAFTA-related topics, such as the agreement's impact on
specific sectors of the agricultural economy, ideas for furthering
the integration of the member countries' agricultural sectors,
the impact of increased U.S. ethanol production on international
grain markets, and cross-border transportation issues.
Features
Increased U.S.
Imports of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables have allowed
U.S. consumers to eat more fruit and vegetables and enjoy year-round
access to various fresh produce. Primary suppliers are the North
American Free Trade Agreement region for fresh vegetables, the
Southern Hemisphere countries for off-season fresh fruit, and
equatorial countries for bananas.
NAFTA at 13: Implementation Nears
Completion evaluates
the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
as implementation of the accord draws to a close. Just a handful
of the agricultural trade restrictions scheduled to be phased
out under NAFTA remain, and these are scheduled for elimination
in 2008. Once NAFTA is fully implemented, the member countries—Canada,
Mexico, and the United States—will need to exercise their
national autonomy, either individually or in concert, to achieve
further integration of their agricultural markets.
Recommended Readings
Market Integration
of the North American Animal Products Complex examines the
economic integration of the beef, pork, and poultry industries
of Mexico, Canada, and the United States over the past two decades.
Sanitary barriers, which are designed to protect people and animals
from diseases, are among the more significant barriers to more
complete integration of meat and animal markets
Recent Agricultural Policy Reforms
in North America identifies countercyclical assistance as the
common thread in the recent agricultural policy innovations of the
United States, Mexico,and Canada. In other areas, the three countries
are pursuing distinct agricultural policies, reflecting differing
national objectives and economic contexts.
North
American Greenhouse Tomatoes Emerge as a Major Market Force
reviews the rapid growth of the greenhouse tomato industry in North
American and its impact on the field tomato industry. Canada is
the biggest producer, followed by the United States and Mexico.
For the full report, see Greenhouse
Tomatoes Change the Dynamics of the North American Fresh Tomato
Industry.
See all recommended readings...
Recommended Data Products
Production, Supply, and
Distribution (PS&D) contains official USDA data on production, supply,
and distribution of agricultural commodities for the United States
and major importing and exporting countries. The database provides
projections for the coming year and historical data for more than
200 countries and major crop, livestock, fishery, and forest products.
Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United
States (FATUS) provides U.S. agricultural exports and imports,
volume and value, by country, by commodity, and by calendar year,
fiscal year, and month, for varying periods, such as 1935 to the
present or 1989 to the present. Updated monthly or annually.
WTO Agricultural Trade Policy Commitments Database
contains data on implementation of trade policy commitments by
World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries. Data on domestic
support, export subsidies, and
tariffs are organized for comparison across countries. This queriable
database offers various options for viewing and downloading
data.
Agricultural Market Access Database
(AMAD) is a publicly available information tool for the analysis
of WTO market access issues in agriculture. This online database
is a collection of data and information for WTO member countries.
It includes tariff schedules, tariff bindings, applied tariff rates,
country notifications to the WTO, import quantities, and other data
useful in tariff analysis.
Recent Research Developments
The North
American Agri-food Market Integration Consortium (NAAMIC)
is the sponsor of a series of annual workshops on the integration
of North America's agri-food sectors. The 2007 workshop,
held June 14-15, focused on three contemporary drivers of market
integration: 1) the diversion of agricultural resources to biofuel
production; 2) the development of cross-border supply chains;
and 3) the current status of the multilateral agricultural trade
negotiations at the World Trade Organization. NAAMIC is a joint
activity involving USDA's Economic Research Service, Agricultural
Marketing Service, and Foreign Agricultural Service; Agriculture
and Agri-Food Canada; the Farm Foundation; the Inter-American
Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA); Mexico's
Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fishing,
and Food (SAGARPA); Texas A&M University's Agricultural
and Food Policy Center; and the University of Guelph. Contact: Steven
Zahniser
Integration of the U.S. and Canadian animal-product markets varies
greatly, according to an article by ERS economists Thomas Vollrath
and Charlie Hallahan in the March 2006 Canadian Journal of
Agricultural Economics. By analyzing monthly and weekly price
data during 1976-2001, Vollrath and Hallahan determined that the
U.S. and Canadian markets for hogs and pork were more closely integrated
than the corresponding markets for steers and beef. By contrast,
the two national markets for whole chicken were found to be segmented,
due presumably to the fact that poultry is a supply-managed sector
in Canada. Contacts: Thomas
Vollrath and Charlie
Hallahan.
U.S.-Mexico agricultural trade was the subject of a paper by ERS
economist Steven Zahniser at a conference entitled Doha,
NAFTA, and California Agriculture on January 13, 2006, in Sacramento,
California. The conference, organized by the University of California's
Giannini Foundation, explored the implications for California agriculture
of the WTO negotiations, NAFTA, and other international developments.
Papers from the conference are available on the conference
website. Contact: Steven
Zahniser
Related Briefing Rooms
World Trade Organization
Agricultural Baseline Projections
U.S. Agricultural Trade
Mexico
Canada
Related Links
Additional data and information on NAFTA are available from USDA,
other U.S. government sources, international organizations, the
Canadian government, the Mexican government, universities, and other
sources.
See all related links...
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