Official Agencies and Documents
Union Resources on NAFTA
Nonprofit Organizations and Research Institutes
Reports on NAFTA
Selected Articles on NAFTA
Recommended Web Sites

Photo by David Bacon
The North American Free Trade Agreement was launched in January 1994 with the goal of fostering greater economic growth in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, by removing barriers to trade and investment among the three nations. Labor and environmental groups argue that while NAFTA has enriched international corporations, it brought little benefit to workers or the environment. The US, for example, has lost an estimated 766,000 jobs due to the agreement, while Mexico, where many American companies relocated their production, has seen a nearly 21% drop in manufacturing wages, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Critics also point to the new powers NAFTA has afforded corporations through its investor-to-state dispute resolution system. In the name of removing barriers to free trade, corporations have used the system to challenge environmental and public health regulations in all three NAFTA countries. Despite the controversial track record of NAFTA, the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would extend NAFTA to an additional 31 countries and 400 million people.

Official Agencies and Documents

NAFTA Secretariat
NAFTA Office of Mexico in Canada
NAFTA Office of Mexico in the U.S.
North American Free Trade Agreement Text
North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation - Labor side agreement
North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation - Environment side agreement
US Department of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs
US Department of Labor NAFTA-TAA Statistics as of May, 2001
US Trade and Development Agency
US Customs Service NAFTA Information Center
Office of NAFTA & Inter-American Affairs
Organization of American States Trade Unit


Union Resources on NAFTA

American Unions and Labor Organizations

AFL-CIO
Jobs With Justice
United Auto Workers (UAW)
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
United Steelworkers of America (USWA
USWA online film: The Cost of NAFTA

Canadian Unions and Labor Organizations

Canadian Auto Workers (CAW-Canada)
Canadian Labor Congress
Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
Council of Canadians
National Union of Public & General Employees (NUPGE)

Mexican Unions and Human Rights Organizations

ICFTU Inter-American Regional Organisation of Workers (ORIT)
Red Mexicana de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio (Mexico)
National Commission on Human Rights (Mexico)
Frente Auténtico del Trabajo - FAT (Mexico)


Nonprofit Organizations and Research Institutes

Alliance for Responsible Trade
Alternatives for the Americas
Border Trade Institute
Center for the Study of Western Hemispheric Trade
Global Exchange
Global Trade Watch
Mexico Online NAFTA Resource Page
Mexico Information Center for North America
North American Free Trade Agreement Information Center Texas A&M
Resource Center of the Americas
Stop the FTAA
The Development Group for Alternative Policies
The North American Institute
WTO Watch



Reports on NAFTA

NAFTA at Seven: A Briefing Paper
by the Economic Policy Institute (PDF)

Seven Years Under NAFTA
by Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies (PDF)

Distorting the Record: NAFTA’s promoters play fast and loose with facts
by Robert E. Scott

North American Free Trade Agreement and Labor Rights
by the International Labor Rights Fund

NAFTA's Pain Deepens
by Robert E. Scott

State NAFTA Job Loss Report
by Jobs with Justice

North American Trade After NAFTA: Rising Deficits, Disappearing Jobs
by Robert E. Scott (PDF)

Trading Away Rights: The Unfulfilled Promise of NAFTA's Labor Side Agreement
by Human Rights Watch

The Labor Side Accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement
by Jerome I. Levinson (PDF)

Trade and Labor
by Pharis Harvey

The Mexican Economy: Six Years into NAFTA
by Carlos Heredia Zubieta

Reports From Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC):
The Impact of NAFTA on Mexican Agriculture
NAFTA and the Mexican Economy
NAFTA and the Mexican Environment
NAFTA and Labor Conditions in Mexico

NAFTA Expansion and Fast Track Authority:
a report by the Twentieth Century Fund

NAFTA and GATT Intellectual Property Issues
by Ladas & Parry

The US Trade Relationship With Mexico: Where It Has Been and Where It Should Go
by Jon E. Huenemann, Policy Papers on the Americas (PDF)

NAFTA's Corporate Lawsuits
a briefing paper by Friends of the Earth and Public Citizen (PDF)

Maquiladoras and the NAFTA:
from the NAFTA home page

The Coming NAFTA Crash: The Deadly Impact of a Secret NAFTA Tribunal's Decision to Open US Highways to Unsafe Mexican Trucks:
a report by Global Trade Watch


Selected Articles on NAFTA

"NAFTA's Powerful Little Secret"
by Anthony DePalma New York Times, Mar 11, 2001

"NAFTA's Investor 'Rights' A Corporate Dream, A Citizen Nightmare"
by Mary Bottari. Multinational Monitor, April 2001


Recommended Web Sites

AFL-CIO Global Economy Page
Information and action on how to make the global economy work for working families.

WTO Watch Document Center
An exhaustive clearinghouse including dozens of articles on NAFTA.

Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch NAFTA Page
In-depth articles and reports on NAFTA and related issues.





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