On January 1, 1994, NAFTA was born

On January 1, 1994, NAFTA was born.
Known officially as the North
American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA is a treaty signed by Mexico, Canada, and the United States. This treaty increased globalization of the world economy. Its main goal is to encourage trade and cooperation among the three countries in North America. Economic cooperation between the US and Mexico did not start with NAFTA. Connections between the two countries have a long history. Starting in the 1940s, while World War II was raging, the two countries signed a group of agreements known as the
Bracero Program. The
Bracero Program, named
after a Spanish word
meaning, “one who works
with his arms,” allowed
Mexican workers to move
to the United States. They
performed manual labor jobs
that Americans were not able
to do because they were in
Asia and Europe fighting in
the war.
American farmers hired
Mexicans to pick tomatoes,
oranges and other crops. The working conditions were harsh and the wages lower than expected. Still, because so many Mexicans lived in poverty at home, millions chose to temporarily move to the United States to work.
When the Bracero Program ended in 1964, Mexicans who had been working in the US moved back to Mexico. This caused a problem because there was not enough work in Mexico for those millions of people. In response, the Mexican government looked abroad to create more jobs. They encouraged foreign-owned companies
from the US, Europe, and Asia to build assembly plants called maquiladoras. Most maquiladoras were built along the Mexico-US border. By 1996, maquiladoras were the second largest employer in Mexico.
Workers in the maquiladoras — then and now — make all kinds of things such as trucks, computers, and clothes for export. Almost all the goods they produce leave Mexico. In fact, most end up in the United States.
In 1994, the NAFTA agreement further increased the amount of trade between the US and Mexico because it established rules of free trade. One common free trade policy is eliminating tariffs. A tariff is a tax on goods that cross an international border. For example, American fishermen may not add a tariff to the price of their fish when they sell them to Mexico or Canada. A tariff would make the fish more expensive in the other countries than they are in the United States. By the rules of NAFTA, that is not fair. Free trade often helps companies make more money because when products like fish and trucks are less expensive and available to more people in more countries, the market grows. That is, when more people purchase goods, companies can make higher profits and hire more people. Customers who want to buy things benefit from free trade too. When more companies sell their goods with no tariffs, consumers pay less and have more choices.
While most people agree that free trade has benefits for corporations and consumers, this Mini-Q raises the question of how NAFTA has affected Mexican workers.
Based on what you just read answer the following questions:

-Why did the countries of North America sign NAFTA?

2.What was the Bracero Program? How did it affect Mexican workers?

3.Why did the Mexican government work to attract foreign investors to build factories in Mexico?

4.Why do tariffs increase the price of goods consumers might want to buy?

5.Why do free trade agreements like NAFTA say that tariffs are unfair?

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