L.A. Chamber in Montreal to Stress Importance of NAFTA

by Gary Toebben

Fourteen million … that’s the number of American jobs that are dependent on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Over the past two days, senior trade representatives of Canada, Mexico and the United States launched the 6th round of NAFTA negotiations in Montreal.  Concurrently, 25 representatives of chambers of commerce from across the three countries gathered in Montreal for the “Metro Cities for a Renewed NAFTA” summit.

Attending the international summit on behalf of the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce was Carlos J. Valderrama, the president of the Chamber’s Center for Global Trade & Foreign Investment.  Valderrama joined representatives from nine of the largest metropolitan chambers in the U.S., as well as eight from Canada and eight from Mexico.  Following the summit, representatives from the 25 chambers signed a joint declaration emphasizing the importance of maintaining free trade in North America.

The goal of the summit was to send a clear message to the three governments about the importance to business of an updated agreement and maintaining open access to the entire North American market.  Besides focusing on the benefits of continuing the agreement, the group pointed out the risks to businesses and the three economies if negotiations fail.

Since its inception in 1994, NAFTA has created major economic ties between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. that have quadrupled trade between the three nations. Today, NAFTA accounts for $1.5 trillion USD of trade annually. Additionally, the cross-border investments stimulated by NAFTA have led to $360 billion increase in Canadian foreign direct investment in the U.S., and a tenfold increase in Mexican foreign direct investment in the U.S.

Following this week’s summit in Montreal, the Chamber will continue advocating for a robust NAFTA agreement when we travel to Washington, D.C. on March 13-15 for our annual ACCESS DC trip. We encourage you to join us in D.C. to promote international trade and dozens of other issues of importance to the Southern California economy. 

And that's The Business Perspective.