Good Essay On NAFTA’s Healthy Policy

NAFTA established three main policies that guide the trilateral trade between Canada, US and Mexico. One of them is healthy policy. Healthy policy stands upon two pillars that were designed by NAFTA. Firstly, it was a requirement for the three nations to harmonize and abolish their food safety in attempt to protect the end users. Secondly, it established technical standards each product must meet such that it is not considered unfair trade barrier. The policy rests on three aspects, environmental safety, food safety and drug regulations (Hussein, 27-29). Concerning environmental matters, the policy stipulated rules that governed on how resources should be tapped, economic activities that qualify to be legal and rules that control pollution of the environment. Mexico being one of the nations that enjoyed a comparative advantage over Canada and US, expansion of markets could encourage local people to indulge in illegal activities like excessive clearing of forests. It set standards products like food should meet in order to be allowed into this common market. For instance, beverages that have excess sugars are risky and might invite diseases like heart attack and blood pressure. Healthy policy set rules that restricted such products to the market (Freudenberg, 142-144). Secondly, healthy policy looked at the general medical services executed. Foreign investors, traders and workers should enjoy quality healthy services as they conduct their businesses. NAFTA decided to have many qualified healthy practitioners to provide services. The policy touches on pollution of the environment whereby, each industry and business should follow right procedures in the dumping of wastes and gases. It is meant to protect the common citizens. Healthy policy was against the introduction of drugs into the common market; an ironical situation is witnessed later. It stipulated the kind of drugs to be allowed into this market.

References

Freudenberg, Nicholas. Lethal but Legal: Corporations, Consumption, and Protecting Public Health. , 2014. Print.
Hussain, A I. Reevaluating Nafta: Theory and Practice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print.