UCLA's North American Integration and Development Center

NAFTA's Effects 'Negligible,' Says UCLA Study

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Dec. 19) -- While the North American Free Trade Agreement has not been the economic miracle its supporters said it would be, neither has it created the "giant sucking sound" of U.S. jobs high-tailing it off to Mexico that Ross Perot warned about.

In fact, NAFTA's impact has been "negligible," according to a new study from researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles' North American Integration and Development Center.

The study found that the 1994 trade agreement's effects have been completely overshadowed by the trade liberalization Mexico undertook by itself years before NAFTA was signed. Any major changes seen in the trading relationship between the U.S. and Mexico flow from those changes, not NAFTA, says the report.

The entire report, "North American Integration Three Years After NAFTA," is available online; paper copies can be ordered for $20 apiece.