TPT March 2014

Global Marketplace

Of related interest . . . › The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which took effect 20 years ago, enabled Mexico to take advantage of the accord with the US and Canada in a few areas. The automotive and electronics sectors have grown, and the arrival of foreign banks widened access to credit. More foreign automakers have set up plants in Mexico, which now produces about 3 million vehicles per year. Mexico has increased auto-sector jobs by around 50 per cent since 1994. But the treaty has not delivered on its promises to close Mexico’s wage gap with the US, boost job growth, and relieve poverty. Although its middle class is larger today, competition from Asia and Central America has kept wages down, and Mexico is the only major Latin American country where poverty has grown in recent years. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America, poverty fell from 48.4 per cent in 1990 to 27.9 per cent in 2013 for all of Latin America. In Mexico, where it stood at 52.4 per cent in 1994, the poverty rate dropped to as low as 42.7 per cent in 2006; but by 2012, it had risen again to 51.3 per cent. The three-way NAFTA trade has vastly increased, to about 3.5 times the 1994 levels. But US trade with China and other Asian nations has grown even faster over the pact’s first two decades.

Mr Aboulafia told the Times , “You’re talking about a military service that doesn’t need a heavyweight front-line fighter and has suffered a budget squeeze.” › Boeing was not the only dejected aspirant to the lucrative Brazilian fighter-jet contract and probable follow-up orders that will greatly increase its value. Seeking to take advantage of the chill in US-Brazil relations, no less a figure than President François Hollande of France had travelled to Brasilia to talk up the Rafale fighter, built by Dassault Aviation, in a one-on-one meeting with his opposite number Ms Rousseff. The earnest but vain effort came at a time when developed nations are slashing military budgets. As a consolation prize of sorts, a consortium led by the French company Thales already had in hand a $600 million contract from Brazil to build and launch, in 2016, a satellite to help protect the South American country’s communications. France is the sixth-largest foreign investor in Brazil, with businesses in the oil, auto, electricity and retail sectors. Another key item discussed at the 12 December meeting of presidents was the possible re-launch of free trade negotiations between the European Union and the Mercosur trade bloc, which is made up of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela. The two sides were preparing to examine each other’s plans for open markets and a pact to facilitate $130 billion in annual trade, with prospective benefits to some 750 million people.

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