What the World Cup tells us about free trade (Ben Ramanauskas, 11 June 2026, CapX)
The negotiations and enactment of NAFTA were mired in controversy and were bitterly opposed by mainly those on the left of politics as politicians, NGOs, and trade unions raised concerns about its potential impact on the environment and labour standards. NAFTA was controversial and consequential, but it was also a remarkable achievement.
The most immediate and unambiguous success of NAFTA was the sheer scale of trade it unlocked. Given that it was a Free Trade Agreement, this sounds obvious, but regional trade among the three countries grew from approximately $290 billion in 1993 to more than $1.1 trillion by 2016. This represents a near-fourfold increase that outpaced US trade growth with the rest of the world. By 2019, total trilateral trade had reached $1.23 trillion, with the United States exporting $549bn in goods to Canada and Mexico combined, making them America’s top two export markets.