Dear Ambassador, how could be — improved our NAFTA, in the case of Mexico?
What I can see is a still huge inequity. Probably Canada is closer to what USA expectations of partners needs to be. A [Ambassador David Wilkins]: Your question implies that NAFTA’s goal is to raise Mexico’s level of economic development. NAFTA is a trade agreement, so it can do a lot, but it can’t fully resolve large differences in development levels among the three NAFTA members of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The NAFTA members have put a lot of thought into what direction to go after its tariff cuts are fully implemented. One approach would be to extend trade liberalization to other countries in the hemisphere. This was the premise behind the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) initiative, which has not made much progress so far. Another way is to improve NAFTA through relatively modest, regulatory and security measures which are individually small, but add up to significant improvements in prosperity and security. That’s what the Security and Prosperity Partnership, started
