General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Now We Know Why Huge TPP Trade Deal Is Kept Secret From The Public [View all]Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)"In a policy context, NAFTA represents an economic integration plan that extended the deregulation and free-market agendas of governments in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Administrations under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush in the United States, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in Canada, and President Carlos Salinas in Mexico initiated national reform agendas where market principles supplanted other institutional goals and organization. Known as neoliberalism where market forces are believed to be the most efficient and least costly mechanism for allocating all societal goodsthis ideological context all but guaranteed a free-market approach to North American integration. In this way, NAFTA emerged as a neoliberal counterpart to Europes more social democratic Maastricht Treaty."
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement.aspx
It started under reagan, continued under bush 1, clinton, bush 2...