Performance and competitiveness of Mexican exports versus US market in 20 years of NAFTA

Abstract

Twenty years after the implementation of nafta, having the relationship reached a ripe state, the present paper presents an analysis regarding the export competitiveness of Mexico in relation to the United States market Through an international competiveness matrix, and under the focus of the ex post of reveled competitive advantages (RCA) (with four different typologies regarding the performance of the participation of a specific product or sector), the author identifies the main changes from 1992 to 2012 in the Mexico-United States export relation; in both dynamic and none dynamic exports, competitive and none competitive, as well as its combinations. Other sector showed steadiness in its competitive position, favorable or not, which resulted in the difficult identification of structural trends. Furthermore, only a few group of products had RCA during the period of time the study takes place, which is a trend that can be observed to reduce with time, in addition to the observation that there is an indifferent correlation between the existence of a RCA and the performance of the exporter or a good competitive position. Therefore, the effects reached through the growth of the exporter have been essential for the logic of mutually beneficial commerce.