A recent World Bank study analyzed the economic performance of globalizing and non-globalizing developing countries. The study found that in the 1990s, the income per person for globalizing developing countries grew more than 5 percent per year. For non- globalizing countries, annual incomes declined by more than 1 percent per year. The study also found that as trade grew and economies expanded, people with lower incomes realized a proportionate share of the benefits. Absolute poverty in the globalizing developing countries has dropped sharply in the last 20 years.
Free trade is also about freedom.
And habits of liberty create expectations of democracy. And as the political system in Mexico has been liberalized, NGOs and a truly independent press have sprouted. At the recent Summit of the Americas, the leaders agreed that any unconstitutional alteration or interruption of the democratic order in a state of the hemisphere would disqualify that government from further participation in the Summit of the Americas process. Open trade means more competition, less government regulation, and less red tape. That translates into fewer opportunities for corruption.