The head of Mexico's maquiladora industry said the sector he leads will benefit enormously from a new trade deal between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, and added that he never doubted the agreement would be trilateral in nature.
"This new trilateral free trade [agreement] is a wonderful opportunity for Mexico to demonstrate its commercial greatness," Luis Aguirre Lang, president of the Industria Maquiladora y Manufactura de Exportación (Index), said at a news conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, Oct. 2.
He added that, "despite the frictions that presented themselves over the months that the renegotiating process lasted, in Index we never doubted that it would be a trilateral deal."
According to an Index news release, he also said in Spanish that the Mexican maquiladora sector will "become even stronger and competitive as a result of the modernization of NAFTA."
But he warned that Mexico's federal government must learn "from past mistakes" and work more closely with the country's private sector in developing the Mexican work force's skills."
Index is an umbrella organization for 21 national maquiladora associations representing 1,200 companies and 2.7 million workers across Mexico.
Many Index companies have plastics processing operations. The organization was unable to say how many precisely when asked by Plastics News, although a figure of 500 or more has been mentioned in the recent past.
