- EFFECTS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF MEXICO, DERIVED FROM THE GLOBALIZATION OF TRADE.   2382 kb by    Greene, Fernando | fgreene@correo.unam.mx    Short Outline This paper deals with the changes of the spatial distribution of population and economic activities that are taking place all over Mexico, because of the “North America Free Trade Agreement” with the USA and Canada, and the “Free Trade Agreement” with the European Community. Abstract In 1990, México, the USA and Canada signed the “North America Free Trade Agreement” (NAFTA), changing the way in which the industrial production and export – import activities take place. Mexican exports have tenfold since then, allowing Mexico to become the 3rd major exporter to the USA. In 1999 we signed a similar agreement with the European Comunity (ECTA), therefore, the import – export activities with the EC are forecasted to increase 10 times by 2010. NAFTA is changing the spatial pattern of human settlements and industry alocation, because “location factors” priviledge cities in the North – South corridor (NAFTA AXIS) between Mexico City, Guadalajara and the USA, as well as border towns in the north, also affecting a lot of cities and regions that are far from this axis. NAFTA and ECTA will force Mexico to re-plan its communication infraestructure to allow a better communication an efficiency of cities, airports and ports in the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. A much precise city and regional planning should be done. Therefore, an analysis of the above events will be very useful. The reason why this theme could be important to other planners, is that, nowadays there is a great debate among scholars all over the world, on the effects of globalization of 3rd world countries like Mexico, e.g. the benefits and cost of a policy of “openess”. My paper will analyse the main problems and benefits that were confront with such a policy in the last 10 years, these related to the territorial changes in the population and economic activities distribution all over the country. Keywords trade changes distribution Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2003: Planning in a more globalized World   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper