Mexico, Canada brace for renegotiation of NAFTA

The Trump administration has formally advised the US Congress it will seek to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico. President Trump has repeatedly stated that NAFTA was not a fair deal for the US. Both Canada and Mexico are also working to get the best out of the renegotiations.

Since NAFTA was implemented in 1994, Canada, the US and Mexico have been partners in commercial trade and all three economies have been more integrated than ever before. And Mexico’s economy has been growing.

But later this year Mexican and US government officials will sit down to renegotiate NAFTA. That’s creating worries on the Mexican side of the border.

Trump has called NAFTA “a bad deal” and he wants to remake it so it works better for the US. Mexico has repeatedly said that trade needs to be modernized.

Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo recently traveled to Washington and met with US business leaders in an effort to shore up trade ties.

But earlier this year when Trump said the US might break with NAFTA, Guajardo replied with equal force, saying Mexico could break away from NAFTA if renegotiations are unfavorable for Mexico.

Meantime, commerce remains constant all along the US/Mexican Border.

During the NAFTA renegotiations, some Mexican trade experts expressed a need to improve transport infrastructure. Ahead of what promises to be difficult negotiations, Mexico has other ideas for how to improve the trade pact.

Luis de la Calle helped the Mexican government negotiate the original NAFTA agreement in the 1990s. After two decades, he said there are too many dumping investigations among the NAFTA partners.

“Now we have full free trade, we’ve been having free trade with Canada and the US more than 15 years, and it's high time to eliminate dumping investigations among the NAFTA member countries as you have in the European Union,” de la Calle said.

Few believe the negotiations will lead to the end of NAFTA. But just in case, Mexico has already begun making plans to expand trade with Europe and China.

(CGTN)