Briefing | NAFTA at 20

Ready to take off again?

Two decades ago the North American Free-Trade Agreement got off to a flying start. Then it stalled

Put out more flags
|QUERÉTARO, MEXICO

PASS through the gates of the Bombardier plant in Querétaro and you leave the Mexico of potholed roads and blaring horns behind: welcome to a strangely serene place called North America.

In the car park neat lines of vehicles all face the same way—almost unthinkable elsewhere in Mexico. The factory is run by a woman—ditto. Enter the building where the cockpit, fuselage and tail section of Bombardier’s new eight-seat Learjet 85 business jet are being made and it looks more like a laboratory than a factory.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline "Ready to take off again?"

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