By Alexandra Wray Flatt, supervised by Robert A. Novack📧 (Thesis Supervisor) and John C. Spychalski📧 (Honors Advisor) (2017)
A free trade agreement (FTA) is an agreement between two or more nations that creates a free trade area in which goods and services can be imported and exported across borders with little to no tariffs or other markups, which are common in the global market. They allow for the formation of strategic partnerships to open up markets globally, and once established, stabilize and lower the cost of goods and services between partnered nations (“Free Trade Agreements”, 2017). In a time of continuous international globalization, mixed with recent nationalism in the United States since the turnover of presidential administrations, it is time for American companies to acknowledge their dependency on trade agreements over the previous two decades. This research seeks to identify key pieces to free trade legislation and their effect on major industries within the United States. In order to analyze this material effectively, this thesis will focus mainly on NAFTA’s impact on the American auto industry. Created in 1993, NAFTA is one of the most crucial and long-standing free trade agreements that the United States is still using. Time has allowed the successes and shortcomings of this agreement to polarize, which will be recognized in this piece. As globalization continues to grow and complicate supply chains, the provisions laid out in current and future free trade agreements will become even more important in sourcing strategies for American manufacturers. This thesis will recommend best practices for renegotiation based on historical trends and NAFTA’s effect on the auto manufacturing industry.
Access the paper at Electronic Theses for Schreyer Honors College (ETDA) website here.