North American Free Trade Agreement

The North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA, was a trade agreement signed by Canada, Mexico and the United States that created a trilateral trade bloc in North America. It came into force on January 1, 1994 and superseded the 1988 Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. The three governments ratified it in 1993 after adding two side agreements, one on labor cooperation and one on environmental cooperation. It eliminated or reduced barriers to trade and investment among the three countries, and its effects on employment, the environment and growth were long disputed. After 2018 negotiations it was replaced by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which took effect on July 1, 2020.