Mexico 2013 Blog: Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo on Mexico's Economic Scenario

By
Carin Zissis

The economy secretary shared his perspective on the evolving nature of Mexico's global trade partnership, as well as the importance of production integration.

Opening the conference, AS/COA's President and CEO Susan Segal set the stage for a discussion on Mexico's global profile. Segal pointed out that trade accounts for a major portion of Mexican GDP, particularly when compared to other large economies.

Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo connected the country's global, outward approach to making progress on the domestic front, exploring how trade pacts have evolved from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) currently in negotiation. At 20 years, we've seen extraordinary results from NAFTA, he said, but growth statistics are not so convincing. He cautioned that Mexico did not pursue a mistaken model, but that global integration requires internal advances. In deepening NAFTA, there's a need to pass from a major commercial alliance to major productive integration to connect the value chains, he said.

Turning to the TPP, Guajardo stressed that this international trade pact paves Mexico's path toward two major goals: integration with Asian economies and ahievements that weren't technically possible at the time that NAFTA was signed. But he also noted that Mexican global expansion should lead to integration domestically as well.

Watch the welcoming remarks, as well as the secretary's keynote speech: