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Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson: Rescuing Canadian Businesses from the Suds of Global Obscurityby Andrea Mandel-Campbell Douglas & McIntyre, 2007, English, Hardcover, 312 pages
REVIEWED BY ROBERT A. PASTOR
Canada has more fresh water than any other country and is the second largest producer of barley-the two main ingredients of beer. Yet Canadians drink more Corona than Mexicans drink Molson. "How did this happen?" asks Canadian journalist Andrea Mandel-Campbell, former Financial Times Mexico bureau chief, in her latest book. The question, posed with a mix of regret and exasperation in Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson: Rescuing Canadian Businesses from the Suds of Global Obscurity, provides the basis for a welcome rebuttal to the populist protectionism fanned by commentators in North America.
Lou Dobbs, for example, treats his CNN audience to a seemingly endless stream of anecdotes of U.S. companies that have closed shop and moved jobs abroad. In a declining economy, his reports have reinforced many Americans' fear of global competition and persuaded politicians to propose new variations on the old protectionist theme. Dobbs has a counterpart in Canada: Maude Barlow, head of the Council of Canadians, a nationalist group that has long campaigned against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Opinion leaders like Dobbs and Barlow have helped create a climate in which the idea of repealing NAFTA is being seriously considered.
Drawing on a decade of experience as a journalist in Latin America, Mandel-Campbell offers a fresh antidote to this protectionist world view. The Molson story provides her with a hook to draw a contrast between Canadian businesses that succeeded after investing abroad and those that failed by remaining insulated at home.
Molson fumbled in its first effort to enter the Brazilian market-a setback that made it less inclined to try again in Mexico or elsewhere. But Molson's competitiveness, according to Mandel-Campbell, is...