NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges

The North American Free Trade Agreement has largely been a success, argue the authors (both of the Institute for International Economics), citing increased trade and growth, but there is now a need to implement a NAFTA II that will address some of the issues neglected in the first agreement and a changing global environment. Their primary proposals include the adoption of common external tariff in order to inaugurate a North American customs union, agreement to use the strengthened dispute settlement mechanisms of the World Trade Organization, more energy cooperation in the areas of infrastructure planning and regulation, common visa standards for non-NAFTA visitors and immigrants, updated labor and environmental provisions that are in accord with other recent US trade agreements, and expansion of the capital of the North American Development Bank for addressing environmental and infrastructure needs. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Reginald Jones Senior Fellow since 1992, was formerly the Maurice Greenberg Chair and Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (1996–98), the Marcus Wallenberg Professor of International Finance Diplomacy at Georgetown University (1985–92), senior fellow at the Institute (1981–85), deputy director of the International Law Institute at Georgetown University (1979–81); deputy assistant secretary for international trade and investment policy of the US Treasury (1977–79); and director of the international tax staff at the Treasury (1974–76).

Erika Wada, former visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute, is a PhD candidate at Michigan State University. She is coauthor of Local Content Requirements: A Global Problem (2013) and The Benefits of Price Convergence: Speculative Calculations (2002) and coeditor of Unfinished Business: Telecommunications after the Uruguay Round (1997).

Tony Warren assisted on this project while teaching at the Australian National University.

Jeffrey J. Schott joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics in 1983 and is a senior fellow working on international trade policy and economic sanctions. During his tenure at the Institute, Schott was also a visiting lecturer at Princeton University (1994) and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University (1986–88). He was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1982–83) and an official of the US Treasury Department (1974–82) in international trade and energy policy. During the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations, he was a member of the US delegation that negotiated the GATT Subsidies Code. Since January 2003, he has been a member of the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee of the US government. He is also a member of the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy.

Paul L. E. Grieco, doctoral student at Northwestern University's Department of Economics, was a research assistant at the Institute for International Economics.