The Nafta Puzzle

The NAFTA Puzzle: Political Parties and Trade in North America explores the political background of trade liberalization culminating in the signing of the historic North American agreement more than a decade after the North America Accord idea had been outright rejected. Experts from Canada, the U.S., and Mexico examine how each political party grappled with trade as the constituent base, interest group pressures, and ideologies shifted over broad time periods. The book treats each of Canada's long-standing national parties, the Republican and Democratic parties in the U.S., and Mexico's PRI historically, concluding that North America's principal parties have flip-flopped on the trade liberalization issue. The NAFTA Puzzle details the congressional vote in the U.S. and brings us all the way up to the Zapatista uprising in Mexico, ending with a discussion of the significance of NAFTA for overall trade liberalization and the future of trade and commercial relations on the continent.