Did NAFTA slowed down job growth in Mexico?

Answer 1

No. It created more industry and services jobs, at the expense of rural laborers, who cannot compete against the highly-subsidized Canadian and American farmers.

NAFTA's results are quite controversial, at least in Mexico. Some would say it helped the economy, while others accuse the treaty of destroying the livelihoods of millions of people.

During the 1990's Mexico was going through a process of economic liberalization, including privatization of state-controlled industries, as well as opening to international trade and business. NAFTA was just one of many policies implemented by the Mexican government towards that end.

Some results include a jump in trade between the United States and Mexico from $81.4 billion in 1993 (pre-NAFTA) up to $534.4 billion in 2014 and a steady increase of foreign direct investment into Mexico, from $4.3 billion in 1993 up to $42.1 billion by 2014.

However, the most serious unintended consequence of NAFTA is the loss of Mexican rural jobs due to competition against the highly-subsidized American and Canadian producers. This in turn triggered a new wave of illegal Immigration into the United States by these displaced laborers: in 1990 there were 4.3 million immigrants of Mexican origin within the United States -- including legal and illegal immigrants alike. By the year 2000, this number jumped to 9.2 million; most of them, not surprisingly, are from Mexican agricultural states, such as Oaxaca, Michoacan and Guerrero.