Whose to Blame: Government Policies or Free Trade?
Today, Business Week takes a look at how Mexico is benefiting under Nafta -- but why the free trade agreement hasn't solved all of Mexico's economic woes.
There's no question that the country has benefited greatly from Nafta: Mexico has become the world's 15th-largest exporter, sending abroad $272 billion of merchandise in 2007 ($43 billion of which was oil). It transformed a $3 billion trade deficit with the U.S. in 1993 into a $75 billion surplus in 2007. Mexico went on to sign free-trade agreements with 41 other countries, attracting some $223 billion of foreign investment in 15 years.
So, why did tens of thousands of angry Mexican farmers take to the streets in late January, demanding that Nafta be renegotiated? Because after a decade and a half of free trade, Mexico's economic transformation is incomplete, and many Mexicans are blaming Nafta for a plethora of problems that have more to do with bad government policies than with free trade.
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Printer-friendly version
Comments
Post new comment