The North American Free Trade Agreement?
Description
This article is from the European Union FAQ, by Roland Siebelink & Bart Schelfhout with numerous contributions by others.
The North American Free Trade Agreement?
The North American Free Trade Agreement obviously affects different
countries than the EU does, but it may be interesting to compare the two on
other points as well. NAFTA has much more in common with EFTA than with the
EU: it is a free trade agreement, not a customs union, and most certainly no
attempt to create anything more substantial in political integration than
just a free trade area. There are no common political institutions and
member states' sovereignty is left intact.
Personal note: it remains to be seen if NAFTA will not run into the same
problems that the EEC has had in the 1970s: a replacement of now forbidden
quantitative trade barriers and tariffs with non-quantitative ones. To
counter this, member states will either have to accept each other's
standards in health, safety, environmental and consumer protection, or
institute a common body which accounts for common standards. That may mean a
loss of sovereignty for the individual states however.
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