MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
North American partners meet to celebrate NAFTA 20 years, but the agenda has many frictions
US President Barack Obama joined the Mexican and Canadian leaders Wednesday for a North American summit focused on trade but marked by friction between the “three amigos”. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto shook hands with Obama in an ornate state government palace in Toluca, near Mexico City, for private one-on-one talks before Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined them later. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesMercosur, CELAC, UNASUR, they´re nothing but circuses designed to legitimate military dictatorships and repressive regimes the likes of Cuba´s and Venezuela´s. But NAFTA´s a true free-trade agreement, the largest in the world and the most stable. No politics, no circus, just free trade, investments and economic growth.
Feb 20th, 2014 - 05:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0Just look at Mexico. Free trade of narcotics. No games, no restrictions, no politics.
Feb 20th, 2014 - 06:26 am - Link - Report abuse 0Just a stable body count...
Yeah! Argentina and Brazil have no narcotics problem right? at least México´s doing something about it while demagogues in those countries turn the head the other way.
Feb 20th, 2014 - 09:52 am - Link - Report abuse 0Argentina has way fewer narcotics problems. But I agree that over this ten years Brazil become even lazier than it was with crime. Bolivian, Paraguayn, Colombian, Peruvian and Venezualan borders are unprotected and that's pretty much where a lot of the crap comes from.
Feb 20th, 2014 - 12:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Well at least Stevie says Mexico's body count is stable.
Feb 20th, 2014 - 08:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Venezuela's is increasing, so I guess we can blame that on Mercosur.
@1 Jose: I would not compare CELAC or UNASUR with NAFTA or MERCOSUR, those last two are economic blocs while the first two are political associations. It´s the same mistake done by Mercosur or Alba countries when talking about the Pacific Alliance.
Feb 20th, 2014 - 09:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I do like the Celac initiative but it hardly will serve as a point of integration for latam if it doesn´t addres more forcefully the region issues. Something I think Costa Rica as CELAC actual president president is doing well addresing Venezuela´s crisis.
2@ Hey Stevie, whatever happened to “LatinAmerican brotherhood”?, If Cristina behaves in Mercosur the same way you behave here it doesn´t surprise me Uruguay and Brazil are mad at Argentina at the moment.
4@ I think this is a multinational problem and it will take transnational cooperation to solve it.
I guess the best way to develop NAFTA positively would be with more cooperation between Mexico and Canada, atm it just consist on two bilateral relationships: US-Mexico and US-Canada. It was supposed to be a trilateral bloc.
Elena,
Feb 21st, 2014 - 08:34 am - Link - Report abuse 0The best summits are always the ones without scandalization and circus. NAFTA´s growing now with a host of initiatives for more integration among the three nations, there´s a plan to increase the number of mexican students in american and canadian universities to 100,000 and the number of American and Canadian students in México to 50,000. There are already trade corridors from central México to the US and Canada and there´s an incredible supply-chain integration going on between the US and México with thousands of companies sharing operations across both borders. Regulatory frameworks have been standardized, intellectual property rights, etc.
That´s the real stuff. Fortunately for NAFTA, we don´t have to deal with clowns and monkey-talkers the likes of Nicolas Maduro, Correa, Evo, Cristina and others. That´s what really turns any free-trade block or international organization into a real circus, like Celac, Unasur or Mercosur.
@7
Feb 21st, 2014 - 10:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0“The best summits are always the ones without scandalization and circus.” I agree completely
“NAFTA´s growing now with a host of initiatives”
Those are good news, I just think it would help Nafta further a more direct involvement between Mexico and Canada, as this could also help balance their trade links with the US.
“Celac, Unasur or Mercosur”
I am not familiar with UNASUR but I believe Mercosur and Celac have good potential, but much of it will depend on their leadership, and in the case of CELAC, the ability of the entire region to be more pragmatic and coherent.
Greetings :-)
My hope is that the TPP will soon become a reality, but NAFTA and PA are defining milestones for true american economic integration.
Feb 22nd, 2014 - 01:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0Free trade it´s not only about money, it´s about goods, it´s about human beings, today there are nearly two million US citizens living and working in México, there are tens of thousands of american companies, hundreds of japanese and european enterprises. They bring people, culture, ways of doing things and communicating.
Free trade starts with a hand-shake, ends in a friendship, a partnership for prosperity.
Anyone who dreams of a political block, purely and merely ideological and political, it´s missing on the human ingredient. And the human ingredient comes with trade all the time.
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