NAFTA: OPPORTUNITIES FOR U.S. COMPUTER INDUSTRY

The North American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA) purports to eliminate barriers to free trade among the North American nations of Canada, the United States and Mexico. The vehicles to this end are the phaseout of tariffs and accords concerning intellectual property rights, land transportation, and aspects of the environment. Full implementation is scheduled to take place by January 1, 1998 (Ernst and Young, 1991). One of NAFTA's prime advantages for the United States is the possibility of new business opportunities. Major questions arising from these advantages are: which country contains the better opportunity? Moreover, how is this determined? Based on collected data, certain environmental factors and subfactors were most important in assessing the business potential of each country. These factors, along with corresponding subfactors, are market potential (market size, competition); political; social (education, crime); cultural (language); and economic (exchange rate, transportation, labor, tariffs). A discussion of these factors on Mexico and Canada follows.