About the Report
This report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace examines the impact of NAFTA after ten years. The report asks:

    • whether NAFTA has achieved-or is on track to achieve-its policy objectives;
    • what impact it has had on the lives and livelihoods of North Americans, particularly Mexicans; and
    • what lessons can be drawn for future trade policy for the US and for developing countries that negotiate trade pacts with the US.

To answer these questions, the authors looked beyond the two headline figures that have typically been used to measure the impact of NAFTA: the increase in the volume of trade between the countries and the increase in the flow of foreign investment.

Click on the link above to read the full text.
Read the Spanish translation.
New York Times 11/19/03 article (may require free registration)

About the Authors
Sandra Polaski is director of Carnegie’s Trade, Equity, and Development Project. Demetrios G. Papademetriou is co-director and co-founder of the Migration Policy Institute. Scott Vaughan, formerly a visiting scholar with Carnegie's Trade, Equity, and Development Project, is director of the Unit for Sustainable Development and Environment at the Organization of American States. John Audley, formerly director of Carnegie's Trade, Equity, and Development Project, is senior transatlantic advisor at the German Marshall Fund.

*Errata:
In Figure 10 (page 25) the trend line labeled "wages" inadvertantly showed unit labor costs. The new figure correctly presents the data on wages.

On page 27, the study cited in footnote 37 claims that NAFTA eliminated 766,000 net jobs during its first seven years. The text has been changed to reflect this.