The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 831 World Change
12 month 17 day.

Mexican President Salinas, U.S. President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in their respective capitals. The three countries will eliminate tariffs and trade barriers between each other in the next 15 years and become the world's largest trading group.

This is a major event that will go down in world history.

The signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement means further strengthening of the regional economy.

At present, countries around the world attach great importance to serving their own economic development by establishing and developing free trade zones, and the emergence and development of free trade zones also have profound reasons and unique functions.

The number of free trade zones around the world continues to increase, the issues covered are rapidly expanding, and the level of liberalization has significantly improved.

The whole world is discussing the North American Free Trade Area. Although this matter has been brewing for several years and is not new, when the agreement is signed in black and white, it represents the official establishment of the North American Free Trade Area.

Generally speaking, the member countries of regional economic organizations such as customs unions and free trade zones that emerged after the war are generally countries with similar economic levels. From the perspective of international industrial division of labor, most of the member countries have a horizontal division of labor to achieve a higher level of competition and complementary relations.

For example, the European Union is composed of all developed countries. It is a mechanism with similar social systems, economic development levels, and historical and cultural traditions. It is jointly promoted by most countries, and no country can play an absolute leading role. Therefore, its degree of organization and norms are far higher than other regional organizations, which is also the basic reason for its success.

Europe's move from the European Community to the European Union is an extremely important step in European integration.

In contrast, the North American Free Trade Area consists of two developed countries and a typical developing country, which are very different in terms of politics, economy, culture, etc. Therefore, the North American Free Trade Area reflects the economic complementary relationship between the United States, Canada and Mexico through vertical division of labor, and promotes the economic development of all parties.

From a historical and economic perspective, there is no precedent for forming a free trade zone between countries with such huge differences.

It can be said that the North American Free Trade Area is the first attempt by developed and developing countries to form a free trade area within the region. Its success or failure is of great significance to regional economic cooperation worldwide.

Under such circumstances, the basic mode of operation of the North American Free Trade Area is that the United States and Canada use their developed technology and knowledge-intensive industries to further strengthen their dominant position in Mexico and expand Mexico's market through the flow of goods and capital; while Mexico can use its cheap labor to reduce costs, vigorously develop labor-intensive products, and export goods to the United States. At the same time, it can also obtain huge investments and technology transfers from the United States to promote the adjustment of its own industrial structure, speed up the replacement of its own products, and obtain more economic benefits in the vertical division of labor. The inseparable economic relationship between the three countries will become the bond of their cooperation.

Liu Tao watched the news and felt quite emotional.

The ideal is beautiful, but the reality is very skinny!
The birth of NAFTA can be attributed to the growing economic strength of the European Union and the rapid economic expansion of Japan. The development of the world situation has brought some unfavorable trends to the United States. The United States can no longer compete with its opponents alone as before. The United States must create a regional economic group with itself as the core that can compete with other economic groups and economic powers in order to consolidate its position in the world economy.

In other words, it is for this reason that the United States has tremendous motivation and enthusiasm for establishing a free trade zone, not because the United States is kind and wants to help Canada and Mexico.

Unlike the European Union, the North American Free Trade Area has been a North-South regional economic organization with the United States at its core since its establishment. The United States plays an absolute leading role in the North American Free Trade Area. The United States is not only the advocate of the North American Free Trade Area, but also the leading country in the free trade area. It occupies an absolute leading and dominant position in the operation of the trade area.

In other words, the North American Free Trade Area is operating in a direction that is beneficial to the United States.

But there is no absolute benefit in the world; advantages and disadvantages always exist together.

History has also proven that the development of the North American Free Trade Area is far inferior to that of the European Union.

The view that Mexico will soon become a developed country and that it will take off is actually proven to be impossible.

History has long proven that Mexico has even become a black hole. However, Liu Tao knows that after the European Community has evolved into the European Union and now the North American Free Trade Area has been established, other regional organizations will have greater aspirations.

ASEAN, the Arab League, the African Union and others will all want to follow suit.

And this has to do with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which was established just a few years ago.

At present, APEC is just a regional economic forum and consultation organization, which is a forum for promoting economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment among various regions in the Asia-Pacific region.

However, APEC will become the highest-level, most extensive and most influential economic cooperation mechanism in the Asia-Pacific region in the future.

China is now a member of APEC.

Liu Tao looked at the time and left the office, but it was time to get off work.

After returning home, I took my wife and children to the cafeteria for dinner.

Liu Jingming, who just turned 12, is already very tall. Although he is in the sixth grade, he looks like an adult.

The other three children were also very strong. Liu Jingming and Liu Yingqing were good at swimming and didn't look dark. Liu Qing'an and Liu Manhua played tennis and their skins were tanned.

Liu Tao didn't think much of this. After all, if they wanted to go down this path, they would have to endure the hardships.

In professional sports, it is not easy to reach the top. It requires a lot of sweat, blood and tears. It is a constant tempering of the body, mind and spirit to finally reach the pinnacle.

For the sake of his four children, Liu Tao had to push for the organization of national children's and youth competitions.

At that time, there were no competitions of this age in the country, let alone professionalization and commercialization.

There are currently no CBA or Chinese Super League.

However, the CBA is already in preparation and is learning from the NBA to form China's own men's basketball professional league.

It can be seen from this that China’s current sports system is still very imperfect, and there is still a lot to be done and improved.

Seeing that his children eat much more than himself, and do not eat normal food but chicken breast, cauliflower, etc., Liu Tao feels very distressed. However, if he wants to go far on the road of professionalism, self-discipline is a must.

If he lets his child eat and drink like ordinary people out of love, the child will not go far on the professional path, and he will be harming the child.

(End of this chapter)