NAFTA Provides Big Benefit For Mexico's Auto Industries.

Mexico's auto industry has benefitted enormously from the country's membership in the North American Free Trade Agreement, the head of an industry chamber said. "It's one of the sectors that has most benefitted," said Cesar Flores, executive vice president of Mexican auto industry association AMIA. The U.S., Mexico and Canada signed the Nafta in late 1992.

The agreement has opened Mexico's auto industry up to $20 billion in investment that has streamed in just during the last six years, and most major auto companies have manufacturing centers in the country, AMIA said. Toyota Motor Corp., one of the last to arrive, broke ground on its first Mexican plant earlier this year. Exports, 95 percent of which head to the U.S. and Canada, have grown rapidly.

In 1990, Mexico exported around 180,000 vehicles, whereas in the first 11 months of 2002 manufacturers in Mexico have sent 1.23 million units abroad. More than four models, including the new Volkswagen Beetle, are exclusively manufactured in Mexico. The industry contributes about 2.4 percent of Mexico's $600 billion gross domestic product, AMIA said.