"The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect on January 1, 1994, creating a freetrade area encompassing the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Since then, agreements have been proposed—and, in some cases, negotiations begun or even completed—for a Free Trade Area of the Americas and freetrade areas with a number of other countries of vary ing degrees of development. Consequently, assessing the effects of NAFTA is relevant to current debates about trade policy." (Quoted from paper)