|
|
|
 he United States, Canada, and Mexico have agreed to accelerate the benefits that NAFTA brings to each country's consumers, workers, and businesses by eliminating tariffs on $25 billion in total trade.
The provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) allow for this accelerated process and were agreed upon in December. The changes are effective January 1, 2002.
"Speeding up the elimination of tariffs brings NAFTA's benefits to American consumers, workers, and businesses that much faster," said U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. "Over the next few years, this will help our economies sharpen their competitiveness and efficiency. I'm pleased that the three NAFTA partners were able to agree to cut their tariffs even faster than NAFTA's provisions required."
Canada and Mexico are the United States' largest trading partners. With the 2002 reductions, Mexico's average tariff on U.S. goods will fall from the pre-NAFTA average of 10 percent to under one-half of one percent. Each day the NAFTA parties conduct nearly
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
$1.8 billion in trilateral trade. Zoellick noted that NAFTA has greatly benefited the American economy:
The longest period of economic growth in U.S. history came in the aftermath of NAFTA.
Since NAFTA's implementation, U.S. exports to Mexico and Canada now support 2.9 million American jobs - 900,000 more than in 1993. Such jobs pay wages that are 13 to 18 percent higher than the average American wage.
When the Congress approved NAFTA in 1993, trade between the United States and Mexico totaled $81 billion. In 2000, U.S.- Mexican trade reached $247 billion - nearly half a million dollars per minute.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
U.S. exports to our NAFTA partners increased 104 percent between 1993 and 2000; U.S. trade with the rest of the world grew only half as fast. Today the United States exports more to Mexico than to Britain, France, Germany, and Italy combined.
Background:
Under the tariff acceleration, Mexico and the U.S. are eliminating tariffs on an equivalent set of products, and Mexico will eliminate tariffs on additional items for which the U.S. tariff is already zero. Mexico and Canada are eliminating tariffs between their two countries on a parallel package of goods. NAFTA originally scheduled the elimination of tariffs on the products included in the agreement through periods extending to the year 2008. Duties on covered products traded between the United States and Canada were eliminated on January 1, 1998. Following procedures set out in NAFTA, Ambassador Zoellick and his Mexican and Canadian counterparts agreed to accelerate the elimination of tariffs.
Items included in the American tariff eliminations include several rubber and plastic footwear items. In
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
