North American Free Trade Agreement

Trade agreement between the USA, Canada, and Mexico, intended to promote trade and investment between the signatories, signed in October 1992, and effective from January 1994. The first trade pact of its kind to link two highly-industrialized countries to a developing one, it created a free market of 375 million people, with a total GDP at that time equivalent to 30% of the world's GDP. Tariffs were to be progressively eliminated over a transition period and investment into low-wage Mexico by Canada and the USA progressively increased.