US, Mexico, Canada vow to promote SME participation in global trade

They met at Cancun, Mexico, for the third meeting of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Free Trade Commission.

The ministers acknowledged the trilateral information-sharing session on inclusive trade organized by Canada in March for committee leads and look forward to the second USMCA SME Dialogue, to be hosted by Mexico in September this year, a joint statement released by the three leaders said.

They expressed interest in the SME committee’s upcoming activity, organised in partnership with indigenous SMEs and organisations, to help facilitate indigenous SMEs trade within the region. It will be hosted by Canada this fall.

Reaffirming their shared interest in enhancing regional competitiveness, the ministers held a roundtable with business delegations from the three countries to exchange ideas on economic integration and the role of the agreement in that process.

Based on Canada’s proposal for the three countries to work together to enhance North America’s competitiveness by building on each country’s open and transparent investment environments, they encouraged each country to share best practices.

They also held a discussion with Mexican labour stakeholders to hear from workers so that the latter’s voices could be incorporated into trade policy.

The three countries will hold a deputies meeting before the end of this year to assess the progress of the agreement.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)