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Comments on the benefits to Mexico--and to Mexico's President Carlos Salinas de Gortari--from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Even more than President Bill Clinton, Salinas staked his presidency on NAFTA. Yet while the approval of the agreement may mark the beginning of Mexico's emergence from the Third World and its unchallenged leadership of Latin America, the path is by no means clear. The difficult period ahead.

Refers to an article on page A10 (Salinas calls Nafta a test of U.S. relations with all Latin America) quoting President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico as saying that the region would feel `cheated' if the United States Congress were to vote down the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

States that President Bill Clinton and other supporters say the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will raise minimum wages in Mexico and reduce the country's ability to undercut businesses north of the border with cheap labor. Yet that particular pledge is not found anywhere in NAFTA, in the special side agreement to the pact, or in Mexican labor law--it is only a vague pledge made by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico.

Discusses Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari's comment ruling out any renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, his apparently ruling it back in three days later, and the effects of his comments.