The Impact of NAFTA on Drug Smuggling

LilOlLady

Gold Member
Apr 20, 2009
10,017
1,312
190
Reno, NV
The Impact of NAFTA on Drug Smuggling

With the advent of NAFTA, the drug gangs expanded into many legitimate businesses which could be used for smuggling. U.S. officials have reported on their purchase of airlines, trucking companies, new and used car dealerships, petroleum transport corporations and others. However, the increasing use of intermediaries as owners have made it almost impossible to trace their activities in detail. Operations of this size could not be carried out without at least the passive cooperation of key government agencies. In fact,corruption of the Mexican authorities by the drug cartels is notorious. A former Baja California Mayor showed how hopeless enforcement is by stating that he could pay police $ 300 per month while the drug cartels were offering $1,000 per week (2).

The widespread corruption in the Mexican system has provided some spectacles which seem more like fantasy:
The Impact of NAFTA on Drug Smuggling
 
Last edited:
Nor has it slowed illegal immigration - thanks NAFTA...
icon_rolleyes.gif

U.S. Completes 22 Straight Years of Merchandise Trade Deficits With Mexico
November 8, 2016 | The United States ran a merchandise trade deficit of $5,243,300,000 with Mexico in September, according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
That completes 22 straight years in which the United States has run monthly merchandise trade deficits with Mexico. The last time the United States ran a merchandise trade surplus with Mexico was September 1994—when the U.S. ran a $4,700,000 bilateral surplus with its southern neighbor. The U.S. Census Bureau has published monthly figures on the export and import of goods to and from Mexico going back to January 1985. In the 31 complete calendar years that have passed since then (1985 through 2015), the United States has run merchandise trade surpluses with Mexico in four years and deficits in 27 years.

mexico-trade_balance-annual-chart.jpg

Three of those years—1991,1992,1993—were before the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect. The fourth year the United States ran a merchandise trade deficit with Mexico—1994—was the first year NAFTA took effect. September 1994 was the last month that the United States ran a monthly merchandise trade surplus with Mexico. Two months before that, in July 1994, the U.S. ran a $592,700,000 merchandise trade surplus with Mexico. One month before that, in August 1994, the U.S. ran a $99,700,000 merchandise trade surplus with Mexico. But the next month--October 1994--the United States ran a $81,600,000 merchandise trade deficit with Mexico. Since then, the United States has not run a merchandise trade surplus with Mexico in any single month.

Prior to 1991, the U.S. ran up a 45-month stretch of merchandise trade deficits with Mexico, running from January 1985 through September 1988. That string was broken when the U.S. ran a merchandise trade surplus with Mexico of $49,100,000 in October 1988. NAFTA—which created a free-trade zone between Mexico, the United States and Canada--was signed by the then-lame-duck President George H.W. Bush in December 1992. The deal was not ratified as a treaty, which under the U.S. Constitution would have required a two-thirds majority in the Senate for ratification. Instead, it was approved on a so-called “fast-track” that required only majority votes in both the House and Senate. The House and Senate approved the NAFTA in 1993 and President Bill Clinton signed it in December 1993.

us-mexico-imports-exports-chart_0.jpg

In the years since NAFTA took effect, bilateral trade between the United States and Mexico has increased, but in every month after September 1994, the value of the goods that the United States imported from Mexico has exceeded the value of the good the United States exported to Mexico. As of September 2016, the U.S. had run merchandise trade deficits with Mexico for 264 straight months. In 1994, the U.S. merchandise trade surplus with Mexico was $1,349,800,000. In 2015, the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with Mexico was $60,662,8000. In the first nine months of 2016 (January through September), the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with Mexico has been $46,811,500,000.

MORE
 

Forum List

Back
Top