Any time a nation experiences a tremendous amount of economic growth from industrial and agricultural development, the environment is bound to suffer.  The economic expansion in Mexico that accompanied the North American Free Trade Agreement was no exception.  Environmentalists have already been greatly alarmed by the impact it has had on Mexico's environment after just a few years of existence.  Among the three nations involved in NAFTA, the environmental effects on Mexico are perhaps the most alarming as realities of poverty, national debt and sparse and poorly trained officials make it virtually impossible to remedy or even fully evaluate the situation.  Thus, in spite of the establishment of some environmental agreements reached by the three participating nations, it is becoming increasingly obvious that Mexico will have severe difficulties complying with these goals.
 
        For a number of reasons, Mexico entered into NAFTA with a variety of environmental disabilities.  These were further complicated by the treaty, as large multinational corporations moved in, focusing almost exclusively on profit over environmental well being.  Being a relatively impoverished nation, Mexico's infrastructure had always lagged behind substantially in comparison to Canada and the United States.  In fact, due to the financial crisis that took place in 1981, the total public investment on infrastructure plummeted from 12.5% of the GPD  to 3.5% in 1989.  This general lack of infrastructure led to elevated levels of pollution, and would require a tremendous amount of investment to raise it to U.S. or Canadian levels.  Furthermore, according to the 1991 World Bank report, one tenth of all of Mexico's export earnings involve pollution intensive products, such as cement, chemicals, pulp and paper, and petroleum refining.  Thus, the nature of such already established industries coupled with newly introduced foreign firms, makes it increasingly difficult for Mexico to reach the agreed-upon environmental standards.  One of the main reasons why it is so difficult for Mexico to invest a sufficient amount of funds into these environmental projects, is the tremendously high national debt that Mexico is currently running.  This debt is due to international bail-outs by the World Bank, the IMF, and private U.S. banks, whose standards for loans often require cutting social and environmental spending in order to balance the budget and pay back the borrowed sum.
 
        In spite of all these restrictions, NAFTA's effect on Mexico's environment is becoming painfully obvious.  The border region between the U.S. and Mexico has been hit particularly, due to intense industrialization associated with free trade zones and maquiladora industries.  The border between Mexico and the United States is an impoverished area ranging some 1,933 miles with a width of 60 miles on each side.  This area is also known for its poor drinking water, inadequate sewage treatment, mass squatter settlements with deplorable living conditions, exploding population rates, and rapid industrial expansion by industries whose air and water emissions are insufficiently monitored.  Until very recently, Mexico has spent virtually nothing on environmental law enforcement, and thus powerful multinational corporations were able to get away with almost anything.  Now, with the increasing industrialization as a result of NAFTA, the Mexican government struggles to even assess the environmental impact these corporations are having.  Every day for example, untracked, unmonitored hazardous waste from maquiladora companies are dumped onto vast stretches of desert near the border cities.  Likewise, there is rising concern regarding vast marine pollution and endangered marine resources caused by petroleum spills and wastes from oil operations off the coast of Mexico.  Such carelessness is beginning to hit home in the United States, as hundreds of miles of Texas beaches are becoming polluted beyond use.  Due to the expansion of multinational corporations into Mexico from the U.S., there is a substantial increase in the transportation of goods across the border. Mass waves of trucks idling in traffic at international bridges and border crossings have led to substantial photochemical smog problems in Tijuana - San Diego and Ciudad Juarez - El Paso.  Finally, as a result of the immense poverty, such border cities as Ciudad Juarez and Nuevo Laredo lack sewage treatment plants.  Thus millions of gallons of raw sewage are poured daily into the Rio Grande, the main source of drinking water.  In addition to having profound effects on the health of the nearby residents, industries are having increasing difficulties finding fresh water for their processing needs.  It appears that this cycle of anti-environmental industrial procedures will soon come to a screeching halt, due to an outright lack of resources.  If these corporations continue to pollute the land and resources that sustain them, they will quickly find that there is nothing left to assist them in their once massively profitable industries.  Then enters the question of whether these corporations will be forced to pull out of the region, in search of more pristine locations, leaving Mexico and its people with both economic and environmental devastation.
 
        But the border region is not the only place of environmental devastation associated with the effects of NAFTA.  The agricultural sectors also face severe environmental problems.  Large corporations often feel the need to use harsh pesticides on their products to ensure the success of their crops.  However, these pesticides also contain life-threatening poisons that have a profoundly debilitating effect on both the land and the workers.  These toxins eventually seep down into the water supply, poisoning surrounding habitats and polluting drinking water.  Furthermore, these pesticides are known to cause serious health problems and birth defects in humans, and very likely will have similar effects on animal species whose food and water supplies will be similarly contaminated.
 
        The environmental problems indirectly caused by NAFTA are ever changing, as environmental groups and multinational corporations continue both to solve and create new problems.  For more information on current events and the history of these issues proceed to our Links page.