With 56-2 Vote, Mexican Lawmakers Give Easy Final Approval to NAFTA : Trade: The passage comes after 12 hours of debate in which opposition leaders criticized the pact as favoring neighbors to the north.

Mexican lawmakers gave their final stamp of approval Monday to the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite last-minute pleas from opposition leaders to reject the pact as unfair.

The Senate passed the treaty easily by a vote of 56-2 after almost 12 hours of debate.

Sen. Porfirio Munoz Ledo of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) told his fellow senators the agreement favors Mexico’s powerful neighbors to the north.

He said that NAFTA, which is to join Mexico with the United States and Canada in the world’s largest trade zone, was a “colonial-type pact” that will “turn our country over to the foreigners.”

After Munoz Ledo spoke, ruling party Sen. Carlos Sales Gutierrez accused Munoz Ledo of making “false statements.”

“The country you see and the country I see are very different, sir,” Sales Gutierrez said.

The governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, controls 61 of the 64 Senate seats, although six PRI senators were absent for Monday’s vote. Under Mexican law, a vote of the lower House of Deputies was not required to approve the treaty legislation.

Many NAFTA opponents here worry that opening the borders will give the United States greater control over their economy, politics and culture.

They also say that Mexico will be unable to control the flood of U.S. and Canadian investors setting up shop south of the border because they will receive the same treatment as Mexican companies under NAFTA.

Free trade proponents say that NAFTA will create jobs in Mexico and help raise the standard of living.

NAFTA passed its toughest test last week when it was ratified by a bitterly divided U.S. House of Representatives following protracted lobbying by President Clinton. It later easily passed the U.S. Senate.

The Canadian Parliament approved the pact in May, but newly elected Prime Minister Jean Chretien has said he wants some parts reworked before he will give it his final approval.

Chretien wants better rules on what constitutes a subsidy and what sort of sanctions should be imposed for trade violations. He also wants the same protection for energy resources that Mexico won for its oil industry.

The agreement among Mexico, the United States and Canada would create the world’s largest economic market, encompassing 363 million people and a combined gross domestic product of $6.3 trillion.

Scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, the agreement over 15 years would phase out most remaining barriers to the free flow of goods, services and investment among the three North American neighbors.

Mexican Commerce Secretary Jaime Serra Puche defended NAFTA on national television Sunday, calling it fair.

PRD presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas’ recent statements that the pact was “negotiated on the backs of the Mexican people” make no sense, Serra Puche added during an interview.