Researcher: Mexico has a lot to gain in NAFTA with clear strategy

Mexico, Apr. 6 (Notimex).- Mexico has much to gain from the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if a clear strategy is taken in the process, said researcher Enrique Drussel Peters. At the time of presenting the study "Towards a renegotiation of NAFTA: conditions and proposals", the coordinator of the Center for China-Mexico Studies of the Faculty of Economics under the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM, for its acronym in Spanish) emphasized that the Mexican negotiator's strategy must be clear and energetic. Accompanied by the president of the Chamber of the Shoe Industry of the State of Guanajuato (CICEG, for its acronym in Spanish), Luis Gerardo González García, the professor said that even Mexico should arrive at this review with the mentality that the NAFTA could be canceled. He argued that this scenario, which is one of the possible five, should not be feared since the tariff cost would be relatively low and would imply greater damages for the United States, which loses space with Asian countries, especially China. "If the trilateral agreement is canceled, it is not the abyss for Mexico, the costs would be low and it should not be projected in the negotiation that for our country is life or death to stay inside at any cost," he said. Regarding the predictable scenarios of renegotiation, Drussel Peters said that the first is that the United States, Mexico and Canada reach an immediate agreement on the new bases and rules. A second result could be that the parties do not reach an agreement, but decide to keep the NAFTA in force, and another is that there is no agreement and cancel it. It is also possible that there will be no agreement, the NAFTA is canceled and the United States increase tariffs on imports, mainly from Mexico, and in a fifth scenario where there is agreement and increase rules of origin to deepen trade. In the meantime, the country must make a public evolution of the NAFTA and the authorities are obliged to listen to the private and social sectors, he said. The president of the Guanajuato Shoe Industry Chamber, Luis Gerardo González García, stressed that the sector he represents has the same perception that the NAFTA review should not be feared. In presenting general aspects of the analysis "The Mexican Footwear Chain, before the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), conditions and proposals", he opined that this process opens up many possibilities to open up more world markets to Mexico. He pointed out that Mexican industrialists, particularly those in the leather and footwear sector, will be attentive and participate in the so called Cuarto de Junto, since the results of the NAFTA review will impact them directly. He indicated that currently US shoe producers have already been displaced by China and Vietnam in the world and national market, which has also affected Mexican producers.