Mexico is negotiating the NAFTA trade agreement with the US and Canada in “good faith,” according to the country’s finance secretary Jose Antonio Meade, who said the country remained “committed” to the process.
Speaking at LatinFinance’s roundtable at the IMF meetings in Washington DC on Friday, Meade said he was confident of a mutually beneficial result for all countries involved in the trade agreement.
“We are negotiating in good faith,” he said. “We think the scenario continues to be that we will get a result that will be of benefit to the United States and Mexico.”
Growing investor concern over NAFTA’s future, however, has seen the Mexican peso slump 7% against the dollar over the last month. It was hovering near MXN19 to a dollar on Friday, its lowest level since May.
Negotiators from Canada, the US and Mexico met this week in Washington DC for a fourth round of talks. Talks are also scheduled for next week.
Meade was joined at LatinFinance’s roundtable by Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya, CEO at Mexican state-owned energy company Pemex. The pair engaged in a wide-ranging dialogue that touched on the future of Mexico’s economy as well as NAFTA.
A fuller version of Meade’s comments will be published in the upcoming edition of LatinFinance magazine.