Tornado Alley (PROG)

[sortagreen]

"B402 should get his story straight."

They should all get their stories straight.
(with appropriate links this time)

The impetus for a North American free trade zone began with U.S. president Ronald Reagan, who made the idea part of his 1980 presidential campaign. After the signing of the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement in 1988, the administrations of U.S. president George H. W. Bush, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney agreed to negotiate what became NAFTA. Each submitted the agreement for ratification in their respective capitals in December 1992, but NAFTA faced significant opposition in both the United States and Canada. All three countries ratified NAFTA in 1993 after the addition of two side agreements, the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) and the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement#:~:text=Clinton%20signed%20it%20into%20law,effect%20on%20January%201%2C%201994.

Back row, left to right: Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, at the initialing of the draft North American Free Trade Agreement in October 1992. In front are Mexican Secretary of Commerce and Industrial Development Jaime Serra Puche, United States Trade Representative Carla Hills, and Canadian Minister of International Trade Michael Wilson.

So yes, it was a draft, but the final was actually signed a couple months later in December 1992.. again, pre-Clinton. And that was the only formal picture for posterity.

Following diplomatic negotiations dating back to 1990, the leaders of the three nations signed the agreement in their respective capitals on December 17, 1992.[17] The signed agreement then needed to be ratified by each nation's legislative or parliamentary branch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement#:~:text=Clinton%20signed%20it%20into%20law,effect%20on%20January%201%2C%201994.

It wasn't until 1993 that Congress ratified the treaty and it was signed into law.

Clinton signed it into law on December 8, 1993; the agreement went into effect on January 1, 1994.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement#:~:text=Clinton%20signed%20it%20into%20law,effect%20on%20January%201%2C%201994.