Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement

The Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA), official name as the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States of America (French: Accord de libre-échange entre le Canada et les États-Unis d'Amérique), was a bilateral trade agreement reached by negotiators for Canada and the United States on October 4, 1987, and signed by the leaders of both countries on January 2, 1988. The agreement phased out a wide range of trade restrictions in stages, over a ten-year period, and resulted in a substantial increase in cross-border trade as an improvement to the last replaced trade deal. With the addition of Mexico in 1994, CUSFTA was superseded by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (French: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain (ALENA), Spanish: Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte (TLCAN)).

As stated in the agreement, the main purposes of the Canadian-United States Free Trade Agreement were:

• Eliminate barriers to trade in goods and services between Canada and the United States
• Facilitate conditions of fair competition within the free-trade area established by the Agreement
• Significantly liberalize conditions for investment within that free-trade area
• Establish effective procedures for the joint administration of the Agreement and the resolution of disputes
• Lay the foundation for further bilateral and multilateral cooperation to expand and enhance the benefits of the Agreement