Negotiating NAFTA: A Mexican Envoy's Account

In his foreword to the book, Sidney Weintraub argues that the negotiations leading to the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) may be the most important between the United States and Mexico since the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago. This book examines those negotiations from the vantage point of one of the key Mexican officials, Hermann von Bertrab. As an insider, but as someone on the other side of the discussions, he provides a prospective rarely offered of contemporary American foreign and economic policymaking.

Concentrating on the negotiations between the United States and Mexico, with some analysis of the Canadian component, von Bertrab characterizes the discussions as moving through four stages: an initial fast track, the detailed examination of the proposals, a stage of mobilization political support and working out side agreements, and a ratification stage. All in all, a fascinating report on a major diplomatic event and an opportunity to see ourselves as we are seen by foreign officials. Of considerable interest to scholars and researchers of contemporary American foreign and economic policymaking and Latin American Studies.