Growing Together: A Regional Manufacturing Platform

Since NAFTA was implemented in 1994, complex cross-border value chains have become the defining characteristic of the U.S.-Mexico economic relationship, but with only traditional statistics, it was for years very difficult to measure, monitor, and fully understand the depth of economic integration that was occurring. Regular trade data can tell us that bilateral trade has grown more than six-fold since 1993 to its current level of more than a half-trillion dollars, and while that is huge growth and an impressive total, it does little to describe the unique nature of the U.S.-Mexico manufacturing partnership that has developed over the past decades.

This essay looks at new data to learn what we can about the development and current status of production sharing networks between the United States and Mexico. Read the essay here.

This essay is part of our project Growing Together: Economic Ties between the United States and Mexico, which explores the bilateral relationship in detail to understand its nature and its impact on the United States. Throughout the fall of 2016, the Mexico Institute will release the findings of our research on our website and social media, using the hashtag #USMXEcon.