Mexico’s economy is the 11th-largest in the world with an expected annual growth rate of between 1.5 and 2.5 per cent this year and predictions of between 2 and 2.6 per cent next year. It is a country that deeply values its open economy and its 12 free-trade agreements, which give it access to 46 international markets. So said Dionisio Perez-Jacome Friscione, the newly minted Mexican ambassador to Canada, who spoke in September to the Canadian International Council.
One of those agreements—NAFTA—may well be the jewel of them all.
“We are transforming the economy and part of our transformation has been due to NAFTA,” said Perez-Jacome Friscione, who arrived in Canada at the end of June, just as NAFTA renegotiation talks launched. “NAFTA is the centre of the attention, given the process of modernization.”
As his country enters the heat of negotiations, getting three wins is a priority.
“For us, it’s very clear that over the last 23 years, NAFTA has proven beneficial for all three countries,” he said. “It has increased trade and investment, stimulated integrated production, further developed global value chains and generated employment in the three countries.”
This was excerpted from a 2 October 2017 article by EDC.