NAFTA is a story of mixed success, of pluses and minuses. There is a temptation to depict the successes of NAFTA in terms of trade statistics, as the purpose of the agreement is ostensibly about trade. It turns out, however, that there is a global problem with U.S. and Mexican trade statistics, which is that they do not take into account intra-firm commerce, that is, the flow of goods and services between related companies.
In 1991, Mexico changed its national chart of accounts to include what, previously, had been “border transactions”; the result was that all articles for temporary import were counted as if their commercial destination was the Mexican domestic market. The same articles were counted again as a Mexican export when a finished or semi-finished product was returned to the U.S. So, statistics are of little help in trying to gauge the significance of NAFTA.
This 3-page report offers anecdotes as an alternative window through with to view the origins and significance of NAFTA, and comments on the failure of negotiators to design a new oil regime in 1993, one that would wait 20 years before Mexican leaders had the courage to do.