Measuring the final goods trade between Mexico and the United States is vital but not sufficient. The author turns to recent databases on intra-industry and intra-firm trade, routes of intermediate goods and trade in value added to show how deep commercial integration is in North America.

The mercantile dimension of international relations now has —in the midst of globalization— an unprecedented weight. For countries like ours, who have strongly committed to free trade and have identi?ed in it a path to full development, the economic component of diplomacy is critical.

If Bancomext has managed to endure and is now at a stage of clear expansion, it is because from inside but also from other platforms, various institutions and individuals have been watching over it. Here is a first-hand testimony on the history of the bank, undoubtedly marked by vicissitudes but also filled with evidence of a real capacity for reinvention.