December 10, 2009, 2:40 pm

Did Nafta Actually Help Mexico?
By ELISABETH MALKIN

Henry Romero/Reuters
Nafta, signed by President Carlos Salinas of Mexico, left, and President Bill Clinton, has been in effect for almost 16 years.


Who benefited from the North American Free Trade Agreement? Given the continuing decline in American manufacturing jobs, many people assume the winner in the accord must have been Mexico.

Unions and a portion of the Democratic Party have argued that the accord helped push American jobs south of the border to Mexico, where companies can take advantage of low wages and lax regulation. When the issue emerged again last year during the Democratic primary, the benefits to Mexico were never questioned.

But a study released Wednesday by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace finds that Mexico has fared poorly under the accord.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/ ... opment.pdf

“After 15 years, it seems clear that Nafta’s promise of broad-based dynamic growth did not come true in Mexico,â€