Overview
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a comprehensive trade liberalizing agreement among Canada, Mexico, and the United States. NAFTA progressively eliminated almost all tariff and quota barriers to trade among these countries over a transition period that began on January 1, 1994 and concluded 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, and cross-border transportation issues.
Features
A
Comparison of Household Food Security in Canada and the United
States (December 2008) examines differences in the prevalence of household-level
food insecurity between the two countries for selected economic
and demographic subpopulations. When the standard U.S. methodology
for food insecurity is applied to 2004 data for Canada and
2003-05 data for the United States, the percentage of the population
living in households classified as food insecure was lower
in Canada (7.0 percent) than in the United States (12.6 percent).
NAFTA at 13: Implementation
Nears Completion (March 2007) evaluates
the impact of the NAFTA's impact as the agreement's implementation
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.
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