Author Topic: NAFTA at 25: A Perspective from Mexico  (Read 170 times)

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Offline TomSea

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NAFTA at 25: A Perspective from Mexico
« on: September 10, 2019, 01:58:56 am »
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A Perspective from Mexico
As over 80% of Mexico’s trade and investment is with the United States, NAFTA provided an institutional setting of credibility for long-term investment
By Guest Contributor Last updated Sep 4, 2019

Mexico has surpassed China and Canada to become the United States’ number one trading partner. (Foto: Flickr)

By Roberto Salinas León

A curious feature of the pre-NAFTA political debates is that the proposal for a trilateral framework in North America witnessed much stronger opposition in the US (and Canada) than in Mexico. The latter was barely emerging from a “lost decade” of runaway inflation, debt default and currency devaluation—and was seen as more associated with an agenda of import-substitution and protectionism, than with open trade.

In fact, the main concern in Mexico, prior to 1994, was not about labor or the environment, it was about the formidable economic “asymmetries” between Mexico and its northern counterparts, and how this would cause significant dislocation in local companies and businesses, not accustomed to competing in the global arena. Ross Perot’s infamous fears of a “great sucking sound” of jobs fleeing south was seen as strange, especially considering that the size of Mexico’s economy was barely that of, say, Florida’s.

Now, a quarter of a century later, there is virtually no debate in Mexico about whether open trade in North America should continue; if anything, debates tend to focus on the steps towards further integration, including freer flow of capital and labor. The new administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has even moved to secure legislative approval of the revised USMCA agreement, and criticizes the Trump administration for not moving fast enough in lobbying for the approval of the restated and amended trade deal.

This is truly a story for Ripley:......Oh, in the meantime, another (not so trivial) trivia for Ripley: so far, in 2019, despite AMLO and despite global economic slowdown, Mexico has surpassed China and Canada, to become the United States’ number one trading partner.

Read more at: https://panampost.com/editor/2019/09/07/a-perspective-from-mexico/

Infomative.