Free Trade and Concentration of Capital in Mexico

Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has announced that one of the goals of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), currently being negotiated with the United States and Canada, is for Mexico to export products instead of labor. In reality, however, if a free trade agreement is signed, it will likely set off an increase in the number of undocumented workers crossing into the United States. NAFTA would very rapidly contribute to a great increase in the degree of capital concentration in Mexico. Capital concentration, in turn, would yield a reorganization of the country's enterprises and leave massive numbers looking for work. The roots of these potential unemployment and migration problems lie in the structure of the Mexican labor force, which is dramatically different from those of the other participants in NAFTA.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website

Capital (architecture) · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Free trade · Free trade agreement · Geography · International trade · Job loss · Political science · Unemployment · Work (physics) · Yield (engineering) · Employment, Labor, and Gender Studies · Engineering · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Regional Development and Innovation

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