Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement: 20 years later

As 2008 comes in, we witness the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. To mark this miletstone, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Executive Director Bruce Campbell has written 20 Years Later: Has Free Trade Delivered on its Promise?, a study examining what's happened since and finds free trade's biggest boosters have grown wealthier but promises of better jobs and rising living standards fell short. According to the CCPA web site, "the study takes a sample of 41 Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) member companies – the leading supporter of free trade – and finds they shrank their workforce by 19.6% while their revenues grew by 127%."

The news release and the study can be downloaded from the CCPA web site at http://www.policyalternatives.ca