Business

Poll: Fewer than 1 in 3 Americans think NAFTA is beneficial

by Niv Elis - 08/02/18 3:23 PM ET

Fewer than a third of Americans think the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is good for the country, according to a new study that comes as the Trump administration pushes to renegotiate the free trade deal with Canada and Mexico.

A plurality of Americans, 36 percent, surveyed in a YouGov poll released by the Bertelsmann Foundation said it would be beneficial for the U.S. to leave NAFTA, compared to 30 percent who said it would not be beneficial.

Far more respondents in Mexico, 63 percent, and Canada, 58 percent, said it would be not beneficial for their countries to leave the agreement compared to those in the U.S.

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The survey found that a significant portion of Americans, 34 percent, didn’t know quite what to think about leaving the agreement, well above the 15 percent in Canada and 9 percent in Mexico.

Older Americans were less likely to support the deal than younger ones, the survey found.

The survey also found that Americans are generally less bullish on free trade than Canadians and Mexicans, leading researchers to conclude that NAFTA itself might be a “toxic brand.”

Just 56 percent of Americans think international trade is on the whole good for the country. In Mexico, 79 percent agreed with the notion, as did 73 percent of Canadians.

“According to these survey results, North Americans hold more negative views of NAFTA than can be explained by their views about free trade alone, suggesting that NAFTA may be a toxic brand,” the researchers behind the study found.

The survey was conducted between Jan. 30 and Feb. 14 and had 1,155 respondents in the U.S., 1,010 in Canada and 1,025 in Mexico. It had a margin of error of 3.1 percent.