Brookings Institution Scholar Praises Mexico’s Advanced Manufacturing

Alan Berube, senior fellow and deputy director at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, recently praised the integrated supply chains between Mexico, Canada and the United States and outlined proposals that would increase North America’s share of global exports.

“Trade volumes between the United States and Canada and Mexico are massive and growing, due in no small part to the fact that manufacturers now treat the continent as one seamless market for research, design, production, and distribution,” Berube wrote. “Firms—both large multinationals like Bombardier and Volkswagen and smaller firms like 3D Robotics and Vitro—stretch their supply chains across North America to maximize product quality and minimize product cost. As a result, the three countries now make technologically advanced products in a globally distinct trilateral partnership.”

Berube also noted that Toluca, host of the upcoming North American Leaders’ Summit, is itself a center of Mexico’s advanced manufacturing automotive sector. “Obama, Harper, and Peña Nieto will gather in Toluca, a center of Mexico’s automotive industry (home to two major Chrysler plants) located just outside Mexico City, a metro area that traded $9.3 billion with the United States in 2010. Its leading U.S. metro trading partner was Detroit, reflecting both the importance of North American trade in advanced industries—automotive, aerospace, electronics, machinery, pharmaceuticals, and precision instruments—and the degree to which that trade extends well beyond the border.”

“Next week’s summit presents an important opportunity for the three North American leaders to reaffirm their commitment to the continent’s unique economic partnership and to take steps to bolster the metropolitan hubs that help all three countries prosper together in a competitive global economy,” Berube concluded