Jerry Pacheco, President of the Border Industrial Association and Executive Director of the International Business Accelerator shared on a recent taping of KRWG-TV’s In Focus that Doña Ana County and Santa Teresa took over as the top exporting area in New Mexico in 2017.
“We are now accounting for 53 percent of the entire exports that leave the State of New Mexico,” said Pacheco.
Negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are set to pick up again this month. Pacheco discussed on the program just how important NAFTA is to business along the border. He used an example of the automobile industry to describe how it depends on companies on both sides of the border to keep working together.
“We have a multitude of companies that are making everything from the textiles for the seats, to the electronics for the inside of the car, to the headliner, to the wire systems that go in a car,” said Pacheco.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFnb5MptTMw&t=50s
President Trump has shared his thoughts on NAFTA calling it “The worst trade deal ever made.” Pacheco said that the rhetoric has concerned businesses along the border. However, he says trade will still happen with the U.S. and Mexico.
“Trade makes too much sense between Mexico and the United States that even if NAFTA goes away we still have the World Trade Organization and that whole regime of tariff reduction.”
Pacheco says that if NAFTA is dissolved, then consumers will feel that brunt of it.
“We’re going pay higher prices for cars, consumer products if NAFTA goes away, but that’s not stopping most of the business that I’ve been dealing with,” says Pacheco.
On the taped episode, Pacheco also shared details on a growing trade show in Ciudad Juárez and last year and a binational community.
Last year, communities across the U.S. made pitched to Amazon for a second headquarters location. The company recently announced it's 20 finalists, and no cities in New Mexico made the cut. However, Jerry Pacheco did discuss how his group was a part of a unique pitch (http://www.hq2countries.com/) to Amazon which did attract much attention from local and national news.
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