Bargaining over the North American Free Trade Agreement

This paper focuses on the attempts of U.S. agricultural interest groups to in-fluence the outcomes of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was approved by Congress in November 1993. Agricultural issues have loomed large in world trade discussions since the earlier inception of the Uru-guay Round General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations in 1986, and Canada and Mexico are important agricultural trade partners of the United States. For these reasons, the agricultural provisions of NAFTA became an important component of the agreement. Moreover, agricultural interests played a crucial role in the passage of the NAFTA implementing legislation. They were able to win concessions that protect U.S. sugar from Mexican com-petition and provide transition-period protection to winter fruits and vege-tables, and that ensnared the United States in disputes about Canadian exports of wheat and peanut butter. With these concessions, the trade liberalization achieved under NAFTA has resulted in little reform of entrenched domestic agricultural support programs in the United States (or Canada) during th