NAFTA intra‐industry trade in agricultural food products

Abstract

AbstractThis paper focuses on NAFTA's impact on intra‐industry and inter‐industry trade in agricultural food products. Bilateral trade among the United States, Canada, and Mexico and their trade with the rest of the world during 1990 and 1995 are investigated. The study shows that U.S. trade patterns for agricultural food products are slowly changing. The proportion of the intra‐industry trade was higher for food products involving a greater degree of processing, whereas trade in bulk commodities with little or no processing was predominantly inter‐industry. U.S.–Canada bilateral trade has been increasingly more dominated by intra‐industry trade. On the other hand, Mexican bilateral trade with both the United States and Canada has been predominantly inter‐industry in nature. The study also indicated a decline in the proportion of intra‐industry trade in U.S. trade with the rest of the world during this period. [EconLit citations: F120, F190]. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.