Coke connoisseurs benefit from free trade agreement

The drafters of the free-trade agreements that have opened up the borders of Europe and North America probably weren't thinking about their effects on pop drinkers when they decided to promote free-market economics.

But those who can't live without the fizzy stuff have tasted new sensations as trade barriers have fallen and regional Coca-Cola variants have started crossing borders.

In the US, for example, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has enabled stores in Latin communities to cut back their orders for regular US Coke, and replace it with Mexican Coke, which can now be imported legally.

The reason for the imports is that the version from south of the border is sweetened with cane sugar, rather than the corn syrup that goes into US Coke, making it, according to aficionados, the finest cola in the world.

The US libertarian magazine Reason went so far, in its last issue, as to highlight Mexican Coke as one of the major beneficiaries of NAFTA, and the drink has become a staple in cities with large Mexican populations, such as Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Antonio.

Non-Mexican Americans, too, are excited by the chance to drink what they see as the real Real Thing, and cola drinkers' Web bulletin boards (yes, they exist) buzz with discussions of where Mexican Coke can be bought.

Needless say, not everyone is blowing bubbles about the growing US popularity of Mexican Coke. The US division of Coca-Cola Enterprises, for example, sees it encroaching on the franchise rights of its own domestic bottlers, who don't make a cent out of the imports from Mexico.

"We believe that those territory rights belong to the rightful bottlers," a US Coke spokesman said last year.

But Coke's problem is NAFTA: The imports are all above board, and it can do no more than try to discourage distributors from importing from Mexico, and promote its own brand to Latin communities.

The many tastes of Coke are of increasing importance to UK drinkers, too. Plenty of small British retailers find it cheaper to spurn UK Diet Coke, for example, in favor of its continental cousin, Coca-Cola Light.

And there a Mexican-style benefit as a result? A scientific taste test -- a can of each open on the desk in front of me -- reveals the result: No. Coca-Cola Light, to these Diet Coke-hardened taste buds, verges on the undrinkable.

Now, to find a Mexican import-export business.