The Mexican forestry subsector and its opening to trade

Abstract

Forest activity plays a minor role in the agriculture, livestock and forestry sector of Mexico. On the other hand, the forest industry and particularly timber production are not considered to be competitive at an international level. According to the World Bank, the production costs are high, forest management is insufficient, and the lack of infrastructure causes that a large part of timber remains unexploited. Only 30 % of the forests are accessible for harvesting. The present work shows a comparative study of the conditions that have prevailed in the timber forest production of Mexico and how this has been affected since the opening to trade in 1994 and the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The central objective is to analyze the behavior of the forest production during the 1994-2012 period. Although timber production at a national level has more than doubled, imports have increased even more. However, the increase in forest production is not reflected in the Gross Domestic Product. Even though the exchange rate is an economic circumstance that may account for the deficit of the forest trade balance, it is a fact that the lack of competitiveness of this sector in Mexico is equally due to other factors.