Mexico to present a new proposal on automotive rules of origin

Mexico will present a proposal on automotive rules of origin for the seventh round of the negotiation talks of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), taking place in Mexico City, according to the Minister of Economy, Ildefonso Guajardo.

Without providing the details of the proposal, the Minister said that it was time to think about updating the rules of origin for the automotive industry for NAFTA.

On the position of the Mexican Automotive Industry Association (AMIA) of not modifying the current rules, Guajardo said:

“I think the AMIA had an initial position regarding rules of origin. I think that after six months of negotiations, it's time to acknowledge that we need stronger rules of origin and that we have to move away from the model used in 1992; in 2018, this is a whole different automobile, we have to update it,” explained during an interview following his participation at the opening of the event "Industry 4.0: Challenges for Mexico."

Guajardo mentioned that thus far, there are two proposals on the table: the U.S proposal which wants an increase in regional material and the Canadian, which was presented on the sixth round and considers the integration of technology and research.

The seventh round of NAFTA talks is expected to take place from February 25 to March 5.

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