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Interview: Mexican business leader says business community ready for NAFTA renegotiation

Xinhua, May 3, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Mexican business community is ready for the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a Mexican business leader has said.

The Mexican business community is ready for a new economic stage which will be more beneficial to Mexico, the United States and Canada, achieved through the modernization of NAFTA, with talks set to begin later this year, said Martin Rodriguez Sanchez, president of Mexico's International Council of Entrepreneurs.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Rodriguez Sanchez said U.S. President Donald Trump will soon announce his NAFTA plans to Congress, allowing for "true negotiation."

"From there, we can analyze at what stage we're at and in which direction we need to head," he said.

Rodriguez Sanchez said the Mexican side "must promote regional integration, help maintain North America as the most competitive region in the world, and become a pillar of qualified job growth and investment promotion in the region."

For him, the 23-year-old NAFTA requires "great changes" in a number of areas, including agricultural products, conflict solution, data storage, energy exchanges, telecommunications and e-commerce.

He added that agreements needed to be reached to "provide certainty to investment and trade between Mexico, Canada and the United States."

"We need a lot of intelligence to explore what happened over the last 23 years of this trade agreement. From there, we need to see the new necessities and advantages that can be offered, not only to North America, but also to Central America, as well as looking how to best work with the existing agreements in Latin America," explained Rodriguez Sanchez.

The business leader, who heads the Join Business Global Group's HR firm, said that entrepreneurs cannot easily accept the end of a trade relationship.

"A business is not closed overnight ... This will be a difficult renegotiation but ultimately we will seek benefits for all which help entrepreneurs," said Rodriguez Sanchez.

It is expected that Trump will seek to kick off NAFTA renegotiations in June or July.

Trump has made it clear that he has concerns about the United States losing jobs or investments due to NAFTA and wants to renegotiate the deal. The U.S.-Mexican relations have been strained by his desire to build a border wall or to slap tariffs on imports from Mexico if NAFTA is not changed to his satisfaction.

Trump has said that if "big changes" are not made to NAFTA, he is prepared to pull the United States out of the agreement.

However, in late April, Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto spoke by phone and expressed their "shared" desire to modernize NAFTA. Endi