Economic-Financial Integration of Brazil and Mexico: What Is the Degree of Integration?

This paper analyzes trade and financial transactions between Brazil and Mexico in order to evaluate the magnitude of their reciprocal integration. Our results suggest that both countries have successfully got inserted into the international economy, which can be observed in their high volumes of trade, in their receiving foreign direct investment and in the size of their capital markets, as well as in the magnitude of their association with the most important countries and financial centers throughout the world. However, even if their bi-national trade and financial integration has notably increased, especially after the Economic Complementation Agreements came into force in 2003 and due to the "translatinization" of Brazilian and Mexican firms, the magnitude of their reciprocal trade and financial transactions remains at very low relative levels, a situation that may significantly change in the framework of a possible strategic agreement of economic integration between these two countries. Adapted from the source document.