The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce has joined chambers of commerce across North America, 25 in all, in urging the robust and vigorous continuation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The agreement was signed at a meeting of 25 urban Chambers of Commerce, from cities as diverse as Detroit, Veracruz, and Winnipeg, according to San Antonio Chamber CEO Richard Perez.
"During the meeting, I discussed issues affecting locally based industries and the benefits of NAFTA for the San Antonio community. I feel stronger than ever that Canada, Mexico, and the United States must work openly, honestly, and diligently to modernize NAFTA,” Perez said.
A delegation from Canada, the U.S., and Mexico is currently negotiating an update of NAFTA, which was signed in San Antonio in 1992. But the negotiations come after President Trump attacked NAFTA during his 2016 campaign, blasting it as a 'bad deal' which had cost U.S. manufacturing jobs.
A report by the Chambers says the opposite has been true, with NAFTA directly responsible for 14 million new jobs in the United States, as well as 2 million jobs in Canada, and 3 million in Mexico, which are now dependent on trade among the three countries.
The Chambers pointed out that the old model of a product being 'made in Mexico' and then imported to the U.S. is now obsolete, with fully 40% of the content of products now imported into the U.S. from Mexico consisting of U.S. made components.
It is not unusual, for example, for parts of a car 'made in Mexico' to travel across the border several times before the car is finally assembled in Mexico and 'imported' into the U.S. The Chambers said that 'value chain' would be lost if NAFTA were dismantled.The Chamber resolution also pointed out that NAFTA has resulted in lower costs to consumers and a wider variety of products being available in all three countries.
There is also the impact to Texas agriculture that would take place were changes made to NAFTA.
PHOTO' SA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE