Principal
agricultural cultures are intended for internal consumption
and are the sorghum, the corn, the corn, rice, the beans and
potatoes whereas the coffee, the cane with sugar, the fruits
and the vegetables are intended for export. The economic contribution
of the agricultural sector (and fishes it which is the greatest
source of employment in the coastal zones) dropped since the
Eighties. The greatest growth of the economy is being carried
out in the treatment of food and the automobile manufacturer
sector in more of industries of iron, steel, preparations
chemical and machineries. There exists also much of industries
of subcontracting. In these factories, the finished products
with half or the raw materials arrive from the United States,
these products once finished in Mexico set out again in direction
of the United States. From this way, the United States profits
from the low wages and the weak Mexican taxes, and also benefits
from the absence of requirements safety, medical and environmental
contamination. Mexico has an important exploitation of mines
and produces an important mineral range, of which money, bismuth,
arsenic and antimony. The country also has small reserves
of suffers, iron, zinc and cadmium. But the greatest natural
richness of the country which brought back the most incomes,
is oil and its derivatives which constitute a third of the
total of Mexican exports. When the price of oil was high the
government invests the incomes in the industrial development
of the country, although since the end of the Seventies much
of efforts were stopped because of the refunding of the foreign
debt and the economic reorganization required by the IMF.
In the sector of the services, tourism is particularized.
The economic relations with the economic giant of North developed
since 1993 with the incorporation of Mexico in the Free trade
area of North America (NAFTA, North American Free Trade Area)
which created an open market between the United States, Canada
and Mexico. Mexico is also member of the Latin-American Association
of Integration (ALADI), of the Economic Forum of Asia and
the Pacific (APEC) and the Group of the Three (with Colombia
and Venezuela). Its principal trade partner is the United
States with which it exchanges 70% of its exports and imports.
The other principal trade partners are Spain, Japan, Germany
and the United Kingdom.
Communications:
Mexico has 243 785 km of roads (motorways and trunk roads)
and of 26 613 km railways. There are 50 international airports
and 33 nationals, and, along the coasts, activate 140 seaports.
Lastly, nearly 9 million telephone lines are of use in the
country.
