An assessment of the impact of NAFTA on Mexico and its implications for the broadening of hemispheric economic cooperation.

Mexican cuisine has emerged as a paradox of globalization. Food enthusiasts throughout the world celebrate the humble taco at the same time that Mexicans are eating fewer tortillas and more processed food. Today Mexico is experiencing an epidemic of diet-related chronic illness. The precipitous rise of obesity and diabetes—attributed to changes in the Mexican diet—has resulted in a public health emergency. In her gripping new book, Alyshia Gálvez exposes how changes in policy following NAFTA have fundamentally altered one of the most basic elements of life in Mexico—sustenance. Mexicans are faced with a food system that favors food security over subsistence agriculture, development over sustainability, market participation over social welfare, and ideologies of self-care over public health. Trade agreements negotiated to improve lives have resulted in unintended consequences for people’s everyday lives.

The book makes an important contribution to the discussion on the nature and impact of current processes of regionalization and globalization. NGOs criticism on Mexico’s weak enforcement of environmental policy could not be ignored or silenced in the NAFTA debate. In the end, a supplemental environmental agreement was added to the trade agreement: a unique event.

NAFTA remains a centerpiece of US trade-policy debate, but its provisions have sacrificed environmental concerns for the sake of trade liberalization. This timely volume analyzes the national policies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The authors explain how the competing priorities of province, state, or government agendas can slow coordination measures to curtail emissions throughout North America. But, North American cooperation could serve as a model for how developed and developing countries can mutually benefit from an international climate change agreement. Emission reduction is now inextricably linked with trade and finance measures in this post-Kyoto era. The authors argue that the three NAFTA partners can work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while mitigating concerns about trade competitiveness. NAFTA and Climate Change provides a critical assessment of how NAFTA initiatives will contribute to the achievement of important climate-change goals at both regional and global levels. This thorough investigation advances potential solutions, and ideas to develop practical channels for transferring technical and financial assistance from developed to developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and further economic development.

Analyzing the experience of Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 'Lessons from NAFTA' aims to provide guidance to Latin American and Caribbean countries considering free trade agreements with the United States. The authors conclude that the treaty raised external trade and foreign investment inflows and had a modest effect on Mexico's average income per person. It is likely that the treaty also helped achieve a modest reduction in poverty and an improvement in job quality. This book will be of interest to scholars and policymakers interested in international trade and development.

This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic, social, cultural and political dimensions of the evolving trilateral relationship among the three countries of North America. Contributors address such topics as energy, the environment, trade, labour, the maquiladora industrial sector of Mexico, the Mexican auto industry, and Canada - U.S. cultural relations.While other publications have focused on U.S. issues, this one emphasizes Canada and Mexico, yet adds significantly to our understanding of the place of the United States in this evolving trilateral relationship.

This book examines the notion of "free trade" and the issues raised by adopting the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Essays by Ralph Nader, Jerry Brown, William Greider, Margaret Atwood, Mark Ritchie, Wendell Berry, Pat Choate, and others.

For the past two decades, trade policy has been high on the American political agenda, thanks to the growing integration of the United States into the global economy and the wealth of debate this development has sparked. Although scholars have explored ma

After describing NAFTA as ‘the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere’, Donald Trump’s election seemed to represent the final nail in the coffin for North American economic integration. Following a decade of stagnation, however, Trump’s victory presents a timely opportunity to reconsider North American integration and evaluate NAFTA’s democratic track record in Mexico. In this book, Pablo Calderón Martínez presents a detailed analysis of NAFTA’s influence as a political tool for democracy in Mexico. Extending beyond a mere economic or social exploration of the consequences of NAFTA, Calderón Martínez uses a three-tiered analysis based on causality mechanisms to explain how the interactions between internationalisation and democratisation unfolded in Mexico. Calderón Martínez’s analysis demonstrates that Mexico’s internationalisation project under the framework of NAFTA gave shape to, if not made, Mexico’s democratisation process. An original and timely resource for scholars and students interested in understanding how – in cases like Mexico where transitions to democracy are characterised by a finely poised balance of power – small influences from abroad can make significant long-lasting differences domestically.

As part of a larger project funded by the US Information Agency's University Affiliation Program, Canadian, US, and Mexican economists explain the North American Free Trade Agreement to readers who understand the basic principles of economics. They consider how and why it emerged in the early 1990s and its performance since implementation, the economic development and commercial policy of each member country in the context of the global economy, the pact's technical strengths and limitation, and ongoing debates. They argue that it has introduced social and environmental innovations in trade agreements, but provides a less than perfect approach to managing the continent's economic integration. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR