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Within the present day globalization context there are three Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in which the labor issues forma part of the Labor Cooperation Agreement (LCA), accompanied by a text that contains "labor principles" : the FTA of North America with its ACLAN, the Canada-Chile FTA with its ACLCC, and the FTA of Canada and Costa Rica with its ACLCCR. There are also two FTAs in which no labor agreement is incorporated: the United States and Chile (FTAEUCHI), and the USA, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic (FTAEUACARD). In this paper the purposes, principles and labor agreements in these FTA and LCA were analyzed, interrelating them with the principles and norms of the ITO and the labor principles adopted by the UN and the OAS. In the conclusions certain considerations related to the impact of these contents in labor relations were formulated. The paper does not refer to globalization as such, or to the non-labor contents of the FTAs. It likewise did not examine constitutional contents, or solutions to controversies, nor the application of sanctions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the issue of regional and international trade flows has attracted increased attention. Papers by Helliwell and McCallum have stressed the importance of national borders in determining the nature of Canadian economic activity even when adjustments are made for distance and trade barriers. This article, using Provincial Economic Accounts data, estimates an almost ideal demand system to explain the interprovincial and international flow of goods, accounting for changes in relative prices and other factors that have arisen since the formation of NAFTA. The results allow conclusions to be drawn with respect to the importance of geographical proximity to the U.S. border, the influence of price and income elasticities, and the nature of the industrial/resource endowment mix of the province. The relevant elasticities allow for the examination changes to the internal and external trade patterns and to the differences which have developed in the various regions of Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a detailed examination of changes in indicators of intra-industry specialization in manufactured goods in trade between the United States and Mexico over the first five years of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The analysis is conducted at the three-digit SITC level of industry aggregation. Many industries experienced large increases in intraindustry trade (IIT). Only nine industries experience declines in IIT. Changes in various indicators of intra-industry specialization suggest few U.S. industries are candidates for significant adjustment problems. Industries facing potential adjustment pressures account for less than one-fourth of total U.S. imports from Mexico. These findings should lessen opposition to greater regional economic integration in the Western Hemisphere by easing fears that entire industries and jobs will disappear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By estimating long-run relationships in bilateral import functions, the effects of the Canada–US Free Trade Agreement is analysed. We also incorporate the gradual switching model into the import function to capture the phased tariff reductions. The result shows that the free trade agreement made both countries sensitive to domestic and foreign prices and insensitive to the domestic income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which examined the strategic/trade alliances between Canada and Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Background on NAFTA; Influence of the United States upon Mexican trade; Trade obstacles faced by Mexico and Canada under NAFTA; Differences in economic and population demographics of the two countries; Rates of Mexican and Canadian exports and imports.

SILVERS A. L. (2000) Limited linkage, demand shifts and the transboundary transmission of regional growth, Reg. Studies 34, 239–251. The Maquiladora Program and NAFTA were expected to open previously protected markets to transboundary investment and trade, thereby transmitting development across the US–Mexico border. But the effectiveness of neo-liberal policies depends upon the magnitude of intersectoral linkages that connect the economies on both sides of the border, and upon market disruptions such as exchange rate shifts. The economic linkages between the adjacent states of Arizona in the US and Sonora in Mexico, and their sensitivity to exchange rate changes, are estimated and used to analyse the effects of these policies and of the peso devaluation on the incomes of both regions. The growth of the maquiladora sector during the first year of NAFTA, together with multiplier impacts, yielded greater income growth for Arizona than for Sonora. The pattern of exchange rate elasticities served to dampen the impact of the peso crash by reducing Sonoran demand propensities for Arizona goods and increasing the maquiladora employment of Sonoran labour, although at lower real wages. SILVERS A. L. (2000) Maillons limités, déplacements de la demande, et transmission transfrontalière de la croissance régionale, Reg. Studies 34, 239–251. A partir du programme maquiladora (usine de montage) et de l'Association nordaméricaine de libre échange, on s'attendait à l'ouverture des marchés, jusqu'ici protégés, à l'investissement et aux échanges transfrontaliers, transmettant ainsi le développement au-delà de la frontière entre les Etats-Unis et le Mexique. Cependant, l'efficacité des politiques néo-libérales dépend de l'importance des maillons intersectoriels qui relient les économies des deux côtés de la frontière, et des perturbations dans les marchés tels les glissements des taux de change. Les maillons économiques qui relient deux états limitrophes, tels Arizona aux Etats-Unis et Sonora au Mexique, et leur sensibilité aux variations des taux de change, se voient estimer et employer afin d'analyser l'impact de ces politiques et de la dévaluation du peso sur les revenus des deux régions. Conjointement avec les effets multiplicateurs, la croissance du secteur maquiladora a rapporté une croissance du revenu plus soutenue pour Arizona que pour Sonora pendant la première année depuis l'établissement de l'Association nord-américaine de libre échange. La structure des élasticités des taux de change a servi à atténuer l'impact du krach du peso en réduisant les propensions de Sonora à demander des biens en provenance d'Arizona et en augmentant l'emploi dans le secteur maquiladora à Sonora, quoique les salaires réels soient moins élevés. SILVERS A. L. (2000) Begrenzte Verknüpfung, Verschiebungen in Nachfrage und die grenzüberschreitende Übertragung regionalen Wachstums, Reg. Studies 34, 239–251. Man hatte erwartet, das maquiladora Programm und NAFTA würden grenzüberschreitende Investierungen und Handel zuvor geschützter Märkte erschließen, und dadurch Entwicklung über die mexikanisch-amerikanische Grenze tragen, doch die Wirksamkeit der neo-liberalen Bestrebungen hängt vom Umfang intersektoraler Verknüpfungen ab, welche die Wirtschaften beiderseits der Grenze verbinden, und vom Störungen am Markt, wie z.B. Verschiebungen im Wechselkurs. Die wirtschaftlichen Verknüpfungen zwischen den Nachbarstaaten Arizonas in den USA und Sonora in Mexiko sowie ihre empfindliche Reaktion auf Veränderungen im Wechselkurs werden geschätzt und dazu benutzt, die Auswirkungen dieser Bestrebungen und der Entwertung des Peso auf die Einkommen beider Regionen zu analysieren. Das Wachstum des maquiladora Sektors während des ersten NAFTA Jahres, gekoppelt mit den Auswirkungen der Multiplikatoren ergab in Arizona einen höheren Einkommenszuwachs als in Sonora. Das Muster der Elastizität der Wechselkursraten diente dazu, die Auswirkung der Entwertung des Peso zu dämpfen, indem die Nachfrage aus Sonora nach Waren aus Arizona herabsetzte, und trotz niedrigeren Reallöhnen die maqiladora Erwerbstätigkeit der Arbeitskräfte Sonoras anzuheben. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determines the effects of trade liberalization by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on producers and consumers in specific regions of the United States and Mexico. Effects of NAFTA on societal gains from trade; Increase in the net social payoff and the volume traded between producing and consuming regions under NAFTA.

Although the North American Free Trade Agreement has proven contentious and looms ominously threatening as a new source of economic dislocation, its greatest significance, together with that of similar trade agreements (e g, GATT), may ultimately lay in the emphasis and legitimation it contributes to social and economic changes already under way. These social and economic changes lend themselves to the further articulation of new class divisions in the United States. These emerging new class divisions are explored in relation to both the implications that they have for society in the US and in relation to some of the questions they pose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]