Financial Wealth Ideas

United States Participation in the regional integration process has become a powerful factor in long-term positive impact on domestic economic development. Total trade with Mexico only for 1993-1997 increased almost 2.5 times (from 80.5 billion dollars to 197 billion) in Canada - almost 2-fold (from 197 to 364 billion). In both these countries account for one third of external trade in the United States. In the early 2000's the average annual growth of trade with Mexico amounted to more than 20%, Canada - 10%. The status of duty-free goods has spread to two-thirds of all American exports to the region, and these opportunities continue to grow. United States are in need of such regional economic integration to enhance their competitiveness in relation to the main economic rivals - the EU and Japan. At the same time, various environmental and labor groups in the United States, like many members of U.S. Congress, fear the movement of American business in Mexico, with its low labor and environmental standards. In addition, Americans are afraid of growing with the 1990 flow of immigrants from Mexico, who in 2000's has reached 300 thousand people per year. Such "latinoamerikanizatsiya" United States seems to many Americans the threat of their civilization, based on the values of the Protestant European culture. The role of Mexico in NAFTA For Mexico, NAFTA membership mean guaranteed access to the American market, absorbing approx. 80% of all Mexican exports, increased foreign investment flows. The quest for economic integration with the United States was the impetus of neo-liberal reforms undertaken by the Mexican Government in the early 1980's, out of import-substituting development strategy. Through a regional association with the United States, Mexico began to gradually integrate into the global economy. Of particular importance for it was also a positive solution to the issue of external debt, after significant financial losses in the 1980's: the Mexican government has made big loans from the United States for the implementation of agreements on free trade. Many foreign companies have started to move its operations to Mexico in order to infiltrate the American and Canadian markets. Foreign direct investment in Mexico, only for 1993-1999 increased by half. Critics of Mexican membership in NAFTA, suggest that the benefits of using it almost exclusively to the elite, but not workers. The attractiveness of Mexico to foreign businessmen linked largely to the low standard of living (low wages), and low environmental standards. That is why the U.S. does not have a strong interest in improving the standard of living of Mexicans. Participation in the NAFTA, Mexico turned to a program of trade liberalization and economic restructuring, which will make it difficult to move away from and return to economic self-sufficiency - almost impossible.