Secretary Johanns Meets With Mexican Officials And Renews U.S.-Mexico Consultative Committee On Agriculture
News Date March 05, 2007
Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns announced his travel to Mexico City this week, to discuss final implementation provisions of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Agriculture Secretary Alberto Cardenas and Economy Secretary Eduardo Sojo, and to renew the U.S-Mexico Consultative Committee on Agriculture (CCA). "United States and Mexico have already benefited tremendously from the free trade provisions of NAFTA and we look forward to full implementation of the agreement," said Johanns.
Since implementation of the NAFTA in 1994, two-way agricultural trade with Mexico has risen from $6 billion to more than $20 billion in 2006. Since the first CCA was signed in 2002, U.S. and Mexican agricultural exports to each other have been rising close to $1 billion per year. Under NAFTA, the United States and Mexico have carried out a broad range of cooperative activities and initiatives aimed at smoothing the transition to free and open trade. Since 2005, the United States has invested nearly $20 million in programs and technical exchanges to assist Mexico in addressing production, distribution, and marketing related challenges.
The results of this meeting will be important as NASDA members plan to participate in the 17th Annual Tri-National Agricultural Accord, April 18 to 21, 2007, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. NASDA members will meet with Mexican state secretaries of agriculture and Canadian provincial ministers of agriculture on mutual issues of concern including, among others, trade, sanitary, and phytosanitary standards and rural development. Additional information about the Accord meeting can be located at http://www.nasda.org/Accord/index_en.htm. (Contact: Jennifer Yezak)