The Making of NAFTA: How the Deal Was Done

How exactly do countries negotiate major international agreements? Until now, reliably impartial accounts of how deals are made have been rare and usually describe only one side of a multiparty process. Here, Maxwell Cameron and Brian Tomlin provide the first full, three-country account of the negotiations surrounding the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect on January 1, 1994. Through extensive interviews with participants from all sides, Cameron and Tomlin develop a detailed picture of the process by which the United States, Mexico, and Canada pursued closer economic relations and of the political realities that influenced the politicians and policymakers in each country. Written in an engaging and accessible style, The Making of NAFTA is a faithful account, built on insider views, of how the representatives of the three countries prepared for, negotiated, and implemented the agreement. Cameron and Tomlin show how NAFTA was influenced by the personalities and the multiple, sometimes conflicting objectives of the individuals involved. They also explore what the negotiations can reveal more generally about the making of public policy and the importance of international negotiations.

About the Author :
Maxwell A. Cameron is the Canadian Bicentennial Professor at Yale University's Center for International and Area Studies and Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. Brian W. Tomlin is Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Centre for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at Carleton University. Both have published several other books. They are coeditors of To Walk without Fear: The Global Movement to Ban Landmines.

Review :
"Cameron and Tomlin have written an excellent book on the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), arguably the most successful foreign policy initiative of the Clinton Administration... This volume provides a blow-by-blow account of the deal itself and how it was done... Excellent index; comprehensive bibliography. Highly recommended for college and university library collections, lower-division undergraduate and up."-Choice, December 2000 "Cameron and Tomlin have written the best book so far on the substantive negotiations themselves."-Foreign Affairs, Vol. 80, No. 2 "In The Making of NAFTA, Cameron and Tomlin ambitiously undertake explaining not just what happen by why... In addition to standard archival research, they conducted more than one hundred interviews, mostly with individuals directly involved in the negotiations. The first-person information permitted them to describe so much in the NAFTA process that went on behind the scenes and is not available from other sources... A remarkable accomplishment... "-David Yetman, University of Arizona. American Studies, Spring/Summer 2001 "This is an excellent book that is a must-read for all students of Canadian, Mexican, and United States political economy, as well as those interested in broader questions of international trade negotiations."-Strom Thacker, Boston University, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2003 "The Making of NAFTA: How the Deal Was Done ... provides a theoretically informed, accessibly written narrative of the negotiation process... Cameron and Tomlin provide a ... comprehensive treatment of the dynamics of all three negotiating governments."-Jonathan Fox, University of California at Santa Cruz, Latin American Research Review 39:1, February 2004 "An outstanding account of the landmark NAFTA negotiations, The Making of NAFTA is gripping in its details and broad-ranging in its theoretical implications. This book will make an excellent case study for teaching at all levels and will be of particular interest to scholars of international political economy." -Robert D. Putnam, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University, and author of Bowling Alone: Collapse and Revival of American Community "Drawing on extensive personal interviews in all three NAFTA countries, The Making of NAFTA provides the best explanation yet as to why this trade agreement took the form it did. The authors carefully weigh a wide spectrum of factors, concluding with the important insight that domestic political features and the flexibility of each country's leaders patterned negotiating style and, ultimately, outcome."-Judith Teichman, University of Toronto "In The Making of NAFTA, we now have our first fully trinational account of the NAFTA negotiations. This engaging, suspenseful, and beautifully written book brings the negotiations to life in a way that has simply not been done before."-Carol Wise, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University "This is a powerful book. Cameron and Tomlin open a window on the behind-the-scenes drama of the NAFTA process. Viewing the case through the lens of key theories from international politics and negotiation, the authors provide a deeper understanding of the complex process. A major triumph for theory and analysis, this book is a must read for scholars and practitioners alike."-Daniel Druckman, Professor of Conflict Resolution, George Mason University