Mexican Economy Chief: NAFTA Must Benefit All Involved

Since Donald Trump began his presidential campaign in 2016, he has made the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) a major topic of conversation, saying he would do everything from rewriting it to pulling out of it entirely. Now Mexico's Secretary of Economy, Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, is speaking up on the subject.

Guajardo Villarreal spoke to the Detroit Economic Club earlier this month while he was visiting with executives from General Motors and Ford. He told the crowd of 260 attendees that, "NAFTA is a 23-year-old agreement. When we were negotiating it, we didn’t have cellphones, e-commerce didn’t exist. We need to (improve and modernize it)."  

He said that he hopes to keep the parts of the agreement that are working intact, while revamping it to account for changes in technology and things Mexico has now that it didn’t when NAFTA was enacted, such as energy and telecommunications sectors that are open to competition.

Guajardo Villarreal also said that "...the final agreement has to be a win-win-win for the three nations (involved). There’s no way I can go back to Mexico with an agreement that does not represent an advancement of Mexican interests, as well as U.S. and Canadian interests."

President Trump has made headlines for bashing Ford and GM for building cars in Mexico that are imported to the U.S., as well as threatening a 20 percent import tax on goods from Mexico. Guajardo Villarreal didn't comment on these statements because Mexico is getting ready to begin discussions with the Trump Administration.