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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Mexico: Important changes may come soonAfter more than 10 years living within the NAFTA trade agreement, which includes also the United States and Canada, Mexico seems on the verge of important political changes. As early as 2006 forces opposing the globalization and everything related to it may have the supreme political power in the country that is the closest third world bridge to North America. To ignore such development would be naïve. To fear it as an absolute evil would be unwise. To try to understand it, to take some lessons and to figure out how to manage it is the task for the political advisors and academic researchers in the countries concerned.
NAFTA legacyMexico joined NAFTA in 1994, which in the years before that was a trade agreement between the United States and Canada. The result was that cheap American agriculture flooded the Mexican market and many American companies outsourced their production facilities across the border. 11 years later Mexico has more competitive agriculture, but at the price of 15 million perhaps more uprooted peasants. Many of them by now have moved to the United States. Thanks to the foreign industrial investments Mexico has increased dramatically its exports to the North. On the other hand, this outsourcing hasn't been sufficient to beat the Chinese competitions, which get stronger every year thanks to other U.S. companies' outsourcing. On the balance, Mexico has almost lost its subsistence agriculture, has made its cities less hospitable for millions new job seekers and hasn't achieved definitive comparative economic advantage over other main third world outsourcing destinations like China and India.
Political credit running outNAFTA has modernized Mexico beyond any doubt but that isn't enough in a world where others from the same or even lower levels are modernizing even faster. It seems the political class hasn't created strong enough pro-globalization oriented society. Those who won from the free trade are fewer than those who lost. Mexican living standard may look quite modest compared to the United States, but many peasants from Central America look at it as their new El Dorado. Mexico is experiencing, perhaps for the first time in its history, a massive influx of illegal immigrants from countries the life is still mostly about daily survival. In Mexico itself the painful restructuring from agrarian to industrial society has led to freeze of the real incomes for many and their decline for some. The result is that many look at alternative politicians, and as usual those that promise heavens are those that have largest audiences.
Some opportunities were lostMexico couldn't catch up with all opportunities that were included in NAFTA because of the world economic globalization. On the other hand, the Mexican government didn't utilize all opportunities that were within its reach. The example with the obsolete regulations about the foreign real estate ownership illustrates best these lost opportunities (More here). Created to facilitate the foreign ownership in times when such institution was prohibited, it's now better understood in terms of special interests that oppose any change and want to keep their financial positions. Such example illustrates how difficult it is to make bold moves in a society that still prefers looking back instead of going forward. By the same logic many industries in Mexico remained state-owned and lost their good chances of being modernized. With the social mentality winds changing against the globalization the primary concerns should be to keep afloat those small atolls of entrepreneurship that were created during the last years.
Possible reactionIn a time when all eyes are focused on CAFTA agreement and on how this new trade pact may or may not influence the American economy much less attention is paid to Mexico, which represents obviously greater interest than all CAFTA countries put together. To pretend that there isn't a serious problem with Mexico outside the traditional immigration issues is to play with fire and such position can hardly be understood. No temporary legislation to regularize the millions illegal immigrants working in the United States may cement for too long the current political leadership. Such legislation may be the only rational solution to the problem, but this problem itself is only one of many that Mexico faces. Another wrong reaction will be to try to demonize all those who oppose the free trade. They may be completely wrong in their assessments but their cause comes out of a real social compassion. The real solution will be to increase the social basis for the liberal economic policy, which means to make people feel the advantage every day in their pockets.
Mexico country profile: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Mexico.
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