Colorado-Mexico trade booming

Colorado exports to Mexico have grown an average of 13.8 percent a year in the 14 years since the North American Free Trade Agreement was enacted and totaled $949 million last year, said Eduardo Arnal, consul general of Mexico in Denver, Tuesday.
The state's exports to Mexico have grown more than four times as fast as exports send to the rest of the world since NAFTA's 1994 enactment, helping Mexico to move up from being Colorado's seventh-largest trading partner to the state's second-largest trading partner behind Canada during the 14-year period, Arnal said. He was the featured speaker during the Mayor's Seventh Annual International Lunch at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Colorado Springs.
Mexico last year bought more U.S. goods -- $140 billion -- than the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Belgium combined -- $136 billion, Arnal said. Total trade between the the two nation's totaled $347 billion, ranking Mexico third behind Canada and China among U.S. trade partners.
"Trade is a win-win relationship for both countries," Arnal said, creating economic growth on both sides of the border. He cited a Goldman-Sachs study that predicted that Mexico would be among the world's five largest economies in 2040 along with the United States, China, India and Brazil.