“The U.S., Canadian, and Mexican economies have all benefited from NAFTA. Not as much as they should have, because—even after 20 years—the three countries still haven’t properly integrated their economies, which makes them competitive in many areas where they should be cooperative,” according to an op-ed written by Harold Sirkin, senior partner of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and published in BusinessWeek.
“The U.S., Canada, and Mexico have unique strengths that perfectly complement each other. Canada has abundant natural resources and energy supplies. Mexico has a significant, comparatively young, low-cost labor force in close proximity to the United States. The U.S. has one of the world’s top higher-education systems and is the global leader in technology and innovation. For our economies to benefit fully from NAFTA, these strengths need to be integrated.
“Until the economies of the three countries are better integrated, the full benefits of NAFTA will never be realized. We need to move ahead now.”
