automation and technological advancement. thus, trade integration could well be the mechanism that allows industrial economies to boost overall employment in the face of this new challenge. 15 last but not least, another important advantage that results from trade openness is that consumers gain access to increased varieties of goods for consumption and that they face lower prices for these goods. 16 prices decline with trade openness because of increased market competition ( or market discipline ) and also due to the incentives that trade openness generates for the adoption of new technologies that increase productivity and reduce marginal costs of production. for example, following the enactment of nafta the price of vehicles, relative to average prices, showed an important decline, particularly in the us ( graph 7 ). 17 in summary, nafta has entailed positive gains for both the us and the mexican economies. in particular, it has boosted growth and productivity by exploiting each country ’ s comparative advantages through a complex web of production sharing arrangements that has led to a more efficient allocation of resources across the region. this has not only allowed the region to remain source : robotics industries association. schrager ( 2017 ). feenstra and weinstein ( 2017 ) estimate that between 1992 and 2005, welfare in the united states rose by 0. 86 % due to increased product variety and the pro - competitive effects of trade on markups. us is from the bureau of labor statistics. competitive in the face of fierce global competition, but has also led to a large number of export - related jobs in both countries. it has also meant that consumers have had greater access, and at a lower cost, to a wider array of goods. 4. concluding remarks it should be recognized that trade integration does not happen without undesired side - effects. while there seems to be compelling evidence that production sharing arrangements play an important part in enhancing productivity and living standards, this process necessarily entails the reallocation of resources away from less productive tasks and toward more productive ones, which is not frictionless and may lead to an unequal distribution of benefits among different industries and sectors of the population. just as the new opportunities and gains from global value chains need to be emphasized, the new policy challenges that these negative sideeffects entail need to be recognized and addressed to ensure that everyone shares in these gains from trade. policy - makers are confronted with the need of designing and implementing policies that mitigate adverse effects on sectors of the population that do not directly benefit from either the process

. in particular, the underlying microeconomic structure of the economy also matters, since, to a large extent, it determines how productive and efficient a country is. hence, besides working towards achieving a better macroeconomic management, for a long time mexico has also pursued policies aimed at reforming the structure of the economy. as part of this agenda, during the past few years mexico has enacted a series of structural reforms whose aim is to improve human capital, enhance infrastructure, boost competition in domestic input and products markets, and strengthen institutions. preeminent among these are reforms addressing the labor market, appropriate anti - trust legislation, education, and the financial, telecommunications, oil and electricity sectors. many of these reforms are now being implemented and are expected to improve mexico´s competitiveness and productivity, since many of them deal with sectors that provide inputs of generalized use. they are also expected to provide additional efficiency gains via the adequate regulation of sectors that behave like natural monopolies due to their network structure. this reform effort has been and will continue to be of paramount importance to the modernization process of the mexican economy as it allows mexico to achieve greater flexibility and efficiency in the allocation of its productive resources, which, in turn, is key to attaining greater economic growth. mexico´s solid macroeconomic framework and its ambitious structural reform agenda have worked in tandem to make the mexican economy resilient to the many external shocks that have afflicted it over the last few years. in particular, the mexican economy has had to cope with a weak external demand as a result of the slow recovery in global economic activity and the stagnation of global trade that followed the global financial crises of 2008 - 09 ; it has also had to deal with the pronounced fall in the price of oil ; and it has had to face high volatility in exchange rate markets, that may be attributed to, among other factors, the uncertainty regarding the pace of monetary policy normalization in the us, as well as the us electoral process. it is worth noting that mexico is one of the few countries among the g - 20 and oecd members that has been able to register positive growth rates for 30 consecutive quarters, since mid - 2009. so it has been able to contribute continuously to the growth and prosperity of the region. 3. trade and its benefits let me now turn to the benefits that nafta has brought for its members, concentrating in mexico and the united states. the enactment of nafta in 1994 transformed the bilateral relationship