Canada Needs Stronger Ties with Mexico

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By Raynell Andreychuk, Ottawa Citizen Sep 08, 2015

With 60 per cent of our GDP and one in five jobs linked to exports, Canada is a trading nation.

Since 1994, much of our trade has taken place within the framework of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which joined Canada, the United States and Mexico in one of the world’s largest free trade zones.

The results have been impressive: In the past two decades, North American trade has grown 265 per cent, and investment between NAFTA partners has increased six-fold.

Yet there remains significant untapped potential in the North American relationship.

This is due in part to our predisposition to act according to a pattern described by some experts as “dual-bilateralism”; instead of working on a tripartite basis to address issues of common interest and concern, that is, Canada and Mexico each tend to work closely with the United States – and to a lesser degree with each other.

Recent developments in Mexico make the case for a rebalancing of the North American relationship even more compelling.

Already Canada’s third-largest partner for trade in merchandise, with bilateral trade valued at $32 billion in 2013, Mexico’s recent move to reopen its energy sector to private industry has created opportunities for Canadian suppliers of energy sector technology and expertise. There are further opportunities for Canada-Mexico cooperation in mining, financial services, infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing.

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