Structural Changes in Mexico:

Abstract

For Mexican agriculture and food-related agribusiness, structural change has been profound because the government was constitutionally obliged to oversee and direct much of the economic activity of the sector, and state-owned enterprises were common. Transforming the agricultural sector involves agrarian reform, deregulation, privatization, and trade liberalization. Since these reforms, commercial agribusiness in Mexico has benefitted from foreign investment and trade, but changes in the traditional agricultural sector have been slow. Greater integration with the U.S. market as a result of NAFTA, and the devaluation of the peso is expected to motivate the rationalization needed in the traditional sector.