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Last Updated: Nov 2nd, 2009 - 17:32:57 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon left the door open on Tuesday to discussion of possible changes in the North American Free Trade Agreement a day after talks with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.
The Mexican government has been concerned about Obama's campaign promise to renegotiate NAFTA with the United States' two partners, Mexico and Canada.
After his final White House meeting with President George W. Bush a week before he hands over to Obama, Calderon joined his host in hailing the benefits of NAFTA, saying it had created jobs on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.
"As I indicated to President-elect Obama yesterday, we are willing to build on the foundation of what the free trade agreement has gained in order to focus on improving the benefits," Calderon said with Bush at his side in the Oval Office.
Calderon said Mexico was also prepared to "look into, as we have always been willing to do, any issues of concern not only to Americans but also to Mexicans," and he cited labor as one of those issues.
NAFTA has greatly expanded Mexican trade with its powerful neighbor since it went into effect in 1994 but is seen by U.S. unions as a cause of job losses in big industrial states.
Calderon told international business leaders in November, following Obama's election victory, that restricting trade would only drive more Mexicans to cross the border illegally into the United States.
"Renegotiating NAFTA is a very bad idea," Calderon said at a meeting of Asian and Pacific leaders in Peru.
In Washington on Monday, Obama told Calderon he would work to strengthen U.S. ties with Mexico but did not mention NAFTA in his remarks to reporters after their meeting.
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