How much are NAFTA talks impacting Mexico?

Vehicle trade negotiations under the North American free trade agreement (NAFTA) are very important for Mexico, but by no means should Latin America’s second largest economy rely on one country (USA), vehicle fleet management expert Rodrigo Monroy told Global Fleet.

“Negotiations have been going on since early 2017.  Although the market and the currency exchange rate has been impacted every time bad news has been released, the talks have not really affected the local economy that much,” said Monroy who is the regional fleet manager for Chicago-based bio-pharmaceutical company Abbvie.

“I believe that there is confidence in the Mexican economy and the automobile industry knows that the country is a key part of exports and imports to and from the USA. We will soon see how the NAFTA negotiations pan out, and I hope it results in a win-win situation for both countries,” the executive said.

In 2017, vehicle sales in Mexico were down 4.6% year-over-year, following the record sales of 1.6mn cars in 2016, according to the country’s automobile distributors association AMDA.