Creating Tension Between America and Its Neighbors
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has considered starting the process to withdraw America from the North American Free Trade Agreement. The NAFTA is an agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the United States that created a trilateral trade bloc between the countries. The deal removed tariffs and allowed for the free flow of goods and services between the three countries in North America. In most economic analyses recorded that the NAFTA has had a small positive impact on the United States while it has had an enormous positive impact on Mexico and an insignificant impact on Canada.
[NAFTA is under revision. NAFTA will most likely turn into the USMCA (United States Mexico Canada Agreement). USMCA is expected to be approved in the beginning of 2019. Until then NAFTA will remain active and the visas under NAFTA are still available. Learn more about about the USMCA. ]
Trump Signing Executive Orders Alienating America is Not New
A draft of the executive order was submitted for the final stages of review. Although allegedly Trump has not made a final decision, if he were to sign the executive order notifying both Mexico and Canada of withdrawing from the NAFTA it would start a 6-month process of removing. The law has shown to extract better terms with Canada and Mexico. Not only economic conditions between countries but in total relations such as immigration to the US. Sources say that allegedly Trump will make final decisions on the order within a few days. This isn’t any news for anyone who followed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign as he spoke about the NAFTA quite frequently. Trump pledged in his campaign that he would renegotiate the deal. Although he promised to renegotiate the transaction, the draft of the executive order is vowing to terminate the agreement altogether. During his speech last week in Kenosha, Wisconsin he said “NAFTA’s been very, very bad for our country. It’s been very, very bad for our companies and our workers, we’re going to make some very big changes, or we are going to get rid of NAFTA once and for all.” President Trump has promised to renegotiate multilateral trade deals which were part of his “America First” approach. During the first few days in office, Trump signed a similar agreement withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
What This Means for Visas and Immigration
For the most of history, America and Canada have had a great relationship with the economy and immigration between the countries. Since the 2016 election, the relationship between Canada and the U.S. has been tense. Recently, Canada lowered its price on domestic milk which created more competition for American dairy farmers so then the U.S. counteracted with their new tariff on softwood lumber coming from Canada. Canada isn’t the only country that has been tense with the U.S., so has Mexico since the US President pledged to build a border that Mexico will pay for. If America does pull out of the NAFTA, it will eliminate the TN visa. The TN Visa “allows citizens of Canada and Mexico, as NAFTA professionals, to work in the United States in prearranged business activities for U.S. or foreign employers. Permanent residents of Canada and Mexico are not able to apply for TN visas to work as NAFTA professionals.” The L1 Visa will also be affected by pulling out of the agreement. The L1 visa “facilitates the temporary transfer of foreign worker in the managerial, executive or specialized knowledge category to the U.S. to continue employment with an office of the same employer, its parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate.” Pulling out of the NAFTA will not only affect the TN and L1 directly but also cause a tense relationship between the United States and its neighbors, Canada and Mexico. Creating this type of tension will create a more challenging immigration process in the future.
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Related Pages:
If Your TN Visa Application Was Denied
3 Reasons Why Your L1 Visa Could Be Rejected
Sources: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/26/trump-close-to-notifying-canada-mexico-of-intent-to-withdraw-from-nafta/?utm_term=.f60a9f1bd1e8 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/26/white-house-nafta-withdraw-trump-237632
VisaPlace Immigration News Contributor
Ella Bergquist
Hello! I am one of VisaPlace's many immigration news contributors. Comment below if you have any questions or comments about this article.
