PRESENTATION OUTLINE
The United States and Mexico have close economic ties. The US is Mexico's largest trading partner, accounting for close to half of all exports in 2008 and more than half of all imports in 2009. For the U.S., Mexico is the third largest trading partner after Canada and China as of June 2010.
The two countries and Canada have signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 with the goal of eliminating barriers to trade and investment. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Mexico has risen dramatically since NAFTA went into effect and in 2008, 41% of all FDI came from U.S. sources. Roughly half of this investment goes to manufacturing.
One U.S. company, Wal-Mart, is the largest private sector employer in Mexico.
The top export categories (2-digit HS) in 2012 were: Machinery ($36.0 billion), Electrical Machinery ($34.0 billion), Mineral Fuel and Oil ($23.8 billion), Vehicles ($20.4 billion), and Plastic ($13.9 billion).
Mexico was the United States 3rd largest supplier of goods imports in 2012
U.S. imports of agricultural products from Mexico totaled $16.4 billion in 2012, the 2nd largest U.S. supplier. Leading categories include: fresh vegetables ($4.0 billion), fresh fruit (excluding bananas) ($2.7 billion), wine and beer ($1.8 billion), and snack foods (including chocolate) ($1.5 billion).
