MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Negotiators trying to rework the NAFTA trade deal on Thursday were hit by the prospect of conflict over U.S. steel tariffs that could complicate carmaking in North America, one of the most sensitive issues at the talks.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose the tariffs beginning next week, raising the risk of exacerbating tensions at negotiations already facing serious challenges.

Officials were unable to say immediately whether the tariffs would include imports from Canada and Mexico, the other two partners in the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

The lack of clarity created uncertainty as some countries might be exempt or taxed at a lower rate, analysts said. Automakers and other users of the metals are also worried about retaliatory tariffs that might affect their finished products.

For months, the United States, Canada and Mexico have been mired in disagreement over a U.S. demand to require a greater portion of North American auto parts and components under NAFTA, which Trump has threatened to ditch if it is not recast to his liking.

Moises Kalach, head of the international negotiating arm of Mexico’s CCE business lobby, said Trump’s call for a 25 percent tariff on imported steel appeared intended to increase U.S. content in industrial goods but would have unintended consequences.

“Who is the priority here? Workers? Consumers? Somebody will end up paying for this,” Kalach told Reuters on the sidelines of the latest NAFTA talks in Mexico City.“What’s going to happen to the competitiveness of North America?”

Canada is the largest exporter of steel by far to the United States, and Trump’s proposed tariff would raise the cost of building vehicles, experts said.

“This would be very bad news for the auto industry,” said one person close to the negotiations.

Canada’s chief negotiator, Steve Verheul, said his team was“keeping an eye on what’s going on outside” when asked how the talks were progressing late on Thursday.

“It’s a bit of a distraction,” he added, without elaborating.

Although it differs by company, for their vehicles made in North America, Fiat Chrysler (FCHA.MI), Ford Motor Co (F.N) and General Motors Co (GM.N) source the vast majority of their steel from North America, according to the auto industry.

GM said in a statement on Thursday that 90 percent of the steel in its U.S.-built vehicles came from U.S. suppliers.

Talks on the issue during the seventh round were suspended this week when the U.S. negotiator overseeing auto rules of origin, Jason Bernstein, unexpectedly returned to Washington for consultations with industry.

Officials have made little progress on the most contentious files since the talks started in August, and the talks look set to drag on well beyond March, when negotiators had hoped to finish.

Under NAFTA, 62.5 percent of the net cost of a passenger car or light truck must originate in the NAFTA region to avoid tariffs. Trump wants the threshold raised to 85 percent and is also seeking to ensure that half the total content is U.S.-made.

The auto industry has opposed those demands, arguing it would disrupt supply chains and raise costs.

Negotiators have struggled to advance on the auto proposal since it was submitted in October. Automakers are evaluating ideas put forward by Canada last month to include newer technology in the calculation of a vehicle’s value.

The current round of negotiations is set to end on Monday, when Mexican Economy Minster Ildefonso Guajardo, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland are scheduled to meet in the Mexican capital.

Separately, Mexico’s chief NAFTA negotiator, Kenneth Smith, said on Twitter the three sides had completed talks on good regulatory practices.

Sources close to the talks said negotiators had also paved the way for closing the telecommunications portion of the trade deal this weekend, as the United States had dropped a proposal that Mexico opposed.

Canada’s Verheul noted that the three sides were close to completing the section relating to technical barriers to trade but needed more time on the environment, two of the areas that some officials say are close to being concluded.

Tentative plans for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to make his first visit to the White House to meet with President Trump were scuttled this week after a testy call between the two leaders ended in an impasse over Trump’s promised border wall, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.

Peña Nieto was eyeing an official trip to Washington this month or in March, but both countries agreed to call off the plan after Trump would not agree to publicly affirm Mexico’s position that it would not fund construction of a border wall that the Mexican people widely consider offensive, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential conversation.

Speaking by phone on Tuesday, Peña Nieto and Trump devoted a considerable portion of their roughly 50 minute conversation to the wall, and neither man would compromise his position.

One Mexican official said Trump “lost his temper.” But U.S. officials described him instead as being frustrated and exasperated, saying Trump believed it was unreasonable for Peña Nieto to expect him to back off his crowd-pleasing campaign promise of forcing Mexico to pay for the wall.

Both accounts confirm it was Peña Nieto’s desire to avoid public embarrassment — and Trump’s unwillingness to provide that assurance — that proved to be the dealbreaker.

A physically slight man, Peña Nieto has been loath to put himself in an environment in which the more imposing Trump could play the bully. Peña Nieto’s style is exceedingly formal, and he is averse to verbal combat, making his carefully scripted public events the opposite of Trump’s often freewheeling appearances.

With Mexico heading into a July presidential election, any action by Peña Nieto that could be seen as kowtowing to Trump or buckling under U.S. pressure risks damaging the prospects for his Institutional Revolutionary Party.

The two presidents’ public posturing over the wall — Trump demands that Mexico pay for it; Peña Nieto insists that it will not — has harmed their personal relationship and jeopardized the alliance between their neighboring countries.

“The problem is that President Trump has painted himself, President Peña Nieto and the bilateral relationship into a corner,” said Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States. “Even from the get-go, the idea of Mexico paying for the wall was never going to fly. His relationship with Mexico isn’t strategically driven. It’s not even business; it’s personal, driven by motivations and triggers, and that’s a huge problem. It could end up with the U.S. asking itself, ‘Who lost Mexico?’ ”

Still, negotiations between their respective administrations continue apace on the North American Free Trade Agreement and other issues. And both governments have strived to portray their ties as strong and the exchanges between their leaders as smooth.

“We enjoy a great relationship with Mexico and the two administrations have been working for a year to deepen our cooperation across a range of issues including security, immigration, trade and economics,” Michael Anton, the top spokesman for Trump’s National Security Council, said in a statement.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray called the U.S.-Mexico relationship closer under Trump than in previous administrations.

“I think in many ways the relationship today is more fluid,” Videgaray said earlier this month in Mexico City alongside Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “It’s closer than it was with previous administrations, which might be surprising to some people, but that’s a fact of life.”

Traditionally, U.S. presidents have prioritized visits with their Mexican counterparts soon after taking office, considering the close ties between the neighboring countries.

But in January 2017, just days into Trump’s presidency, Peña Nieto called off a planned trip to meet Trump in Washington amid an escalating war of words between the two leaders over Trump’s border wall proposal.

In a Jan. 28, 2017, phone call, a transcript of which was published last year by The Washington Post, Trump suggested to Peña Nieto that they both try to gloss over their respective wall positions by saying “we will work it out” whenever asked whether Mexico would pay for the wall.

“The fact is, we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall,” Trump told Peña Nieto. “I have to. I have been talking about it for a two-year period. . . . If you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.”

Since that call, Trump has not visited Mexico City and Peña Nieto has not been to Washington, although the two presidents have spoken by phone and met in person in July at the Group of 20 summit in Germany. The two also met in summer 2016, when Trump traveled to Mexico City as a candidate.

Earlier this month, a delegation of Mexican officials led by Videgaray met at the White House with senior adviser Jared Kushner — the president’s son-in-law, who is charged among other things with managing the U.S.-Mexico relationship — national security adviser H.R. McMaster and other Trump administration officials to work out the parameters for a Peña Nieto visit, officials said.

The Mexican officials left the Feb. 14 meeting believing they had an agreement with the U.S. side that Trump would not embarrass Peña Nieto by bringing up his desire for Mexico to fund the wall — a proposition Peña Nieto’s government considers humiliating.

One Mexican official describing his country’s position said, “You cannot talk about the bloody wall.” This official said Videgaray left Washington believing Trump would not broach the wall during Peña Nieto’s visit.

Trump and Peña Nieto made plans to speak by phone Feb. 20, and, assuming the call went well, their staffs would finalize an itinerary for the Mexican president’s White House visit.

But the call did not go smoothly, according to officials from both governments. Trump said he would not be bound by any such agreement and could not commit himself to not talking about the wall.

“That was a dealbreaker for us,” the Mexican official said, adding that Peña Nieto and his administration were concerned in particular about a reporter asking a question about funding for the wall at a news conference and Trump answering it.

Instead of announcing a date for a meeting in Washington, the statements issued by both governments summarizing the call were vague and said only that they had discussed their bilateral agenda on trade, security and migration issues. The statements also said the two presidents exchanged condolences for the high school gun massacre in Parkland, Fla., and the military helicopter accident in Jamiltepec, Oaxaca.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, whose department is responsible for border issues, has canceled an upcoming visit to Mexico. A Department of Homeland Security official denied Saturday that Nielsen’s trip was scratched because of Trump and Peña Nieto’s disagreement, saying the decision to “postpone” her Mexico trip was made a week before the two presidents spoke.

U.S. officials said Trump and Peña Nieto agreed to have their staffs continue talking and try to reach an agreement about the border wall and other issues. A few hours after the two presidents spoke, officials said, Kushner called Peña Nieto to help smooth things over.

U.S. officials said they anticipate that Peña Nieto may try again to visit Washington, perhaps in the spring, and the Mexican official suggested that the two presidents may get together in April at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru.

“Build the wall!” was a signature slogan of Trump’s campaign and has continued to be one through his presidency, even though Congress has not yet fully funded its construction. At his rallies, Trump would cry out, “Who’s going to pay for the wall?” His crowds would shout their answer back: “Mexico!”

Speaking Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, Trump told his fans, “Don’t worry, you’re getting the wall,” adding that whenever he hears someone suggest that he does not really want to build a wall, “the wall gets 10 feet higher.”

Trump’s statements are considered offensive and outright racist by many Mexicans, who accuse the U.S. president of using their country as a punching bag to motivate his most fervent supporters.

In private, Mexican officials bristle at Trump’s claims that their government is passively allowing drugs and Central American migrants to pass through en route to the United States.

The number of Central Americans detained and turned back by Mexican authorities has at times exceeded the number caught by U.S. border agents, but enforcement by the Peña Nieto government appears to have waned in recent years.

Still, there is an understanding in Mexico that Trump is playing to his national interests, according to Larry Rubin, a businessman who for years has been a leader among U.S. Republicans on Mexico.

“There’s a better understanding of where President Trump is coming from and what his objective is and what his style is,” Rubin said. “Like in any negotiations, there is always posturing or issues that countries don’t agree with. But overall they have so many similarities.”

going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.”

Since that call, Trump has not visited Mexico City and Peña Nieto has not been to Washington, although the two presidents have spoken by phone and met in person in July at the Group of 20 summit in Germany. The two also met in summer 2016, when Trump traveled to Mexico City as a candidate.

Negotiators from the United States, Mexico and Canada open a new round of talks tomorrow on overhauling the North American Free Trade Agreement, with the Mexican hosts already warning of turbulence.Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said the renegotiation of the 24-year-old trade deal is entering a critical phase as the three countries head to their seventh round of talks, scheduled to run through March 5.”It’s going to be a difficult meeting, because the more you advance in the negotiations and wrap up work on the constructive issues… what you’re left with are the highly complex issues,” Guajardo told journalists.”That’s why, as of this round, there won’t be any more easy rounds.”After the last round of talks, in Montreal, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the three sides were making progress, but “very slowly.”The uncertainty looming over the deal is only increasing as the clock ticks on.Mexico, which sends some 80 percent of its exports to the United States, is gearing up for elections on July 1.The presidential frontrunner, the fiery leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has sent mixed signals on NAFTA.

At one point, he said he would start the negotiations over and “make Donald Trump see reason” — though his campaign has sought to strike a more moderate tone.Washington has also sent mixed signals since Trump triggered the renegotiation of what he has described as the worst trade deal in history.While his message that NAFTA costs American jobs has played well with his base, the US business sector and many big players in his own Republican party are opposed to sweeping changes.Trump told The Wall Street Journal last month he would be “a little bit flexible” on his threat to withdraw from NAFTA because he understood the Mexican elections were complicating the negotiations.A series of thorny issues will be on the table in Mexico City.One is rules of origin for the auto sector — the amount of a car’s content that must be produced in the region for it to qualify for duty-free status.The United States wants to increase the North American content requirement from 62.5 percent to 85 percent, and add a new requirement for a minimum of 50 percent US-made content.Mexico, Canada and the automakers all reject that proposal.At the last round of talks, Canada made a counter-proposal that would accept the new content requirement but change the way “content” is counted, including intellectual property and new technology in the calculation.Lighthizer bluntly rejected the idea.Guajardo has said Mexico is working on a compromise solution.However, the head of Mexico’s automobile manufacturers’ association, Eduardo Solis, played down expectations of a Mexican-led breakthrough.”The Mexican auto industry has no particular stance in this round. We aren’t proposing anything different than what we have already said, which is that the rules of origin in the original NAFTA should be maintained,” he told Mexican newspaper Reforma.Still, analysts are generally optimistic the deal will survive.”We still think the most likely scenario is a successful renegotiation, due to the fact that the agreement is positive for all three economies and the supply chains are tightly linked,” Santander bank said in a note.

Southwest Airlines Co. will begin shipping to Mexico in the Dallas-based carrier’s first foray into international cargo shipments.

Southwest (NYSE: LUV) will launch the service in May, subject to necessary government approvals. Initial destinations will be Mexico City, Cancun, Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta. More international destinations are planned for 2018.

Cargo will move on Southwest Airlines’ domestic flights and then be loaded onto international flights at gateway cities such as Houston.

“By offering the cross-border services that our customers are looking for, we’re able to help meet the needs of businesses throughout the United States and, soon, in Mexico,” Matt Buckley, Southwest Airlines’ vice president of cargo and charters, said in a news release. “As we enter the international cargo market for the first time, customers will have more opportunities to experience the friendly and reliable service for which our cargo team is known.”

The new international shipping options are made possible in part due to the rollout of Southwest Cargo’s new point-of-sale and back office accounting system, Southwest Cargo Suite. SCS is expected to take the place of the current system in March, and along with international capabilities, give customers the ability to make advanced cargo bookings.

Southwest Cargo last week won the Airforwarders Association’s Domestic Carrier of the Year award, one of the air cargo industry’s most prestigious distinctions. This is the ninth consecutive year the carrier has received the award.

Southwest’s plan is to begin the Mexico cargo routes now so that in five years or so, international volumes with the carrier will be a substantial slice of its total cargo throughput, Wally Devereaux, senior director for cargo and charters, told Air Cargo World.

Mexico City — Rules for automotive content, one of the most contentious issues in the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), will be among the first tackled at the upcoming seventh round of talks in Mexico City.

On February 25, Negotiators from the US, Canada and Mexico plan to begin on rules of origin, which govern how much geographic content a product must have to benefit from Nafta tariff exemptions, according to a draft agenda obtained by Bloomberg News. The issue is set to receive more than 20 hours of discussion, among the most of any topic, according to the schedule, which has not been released publicly because talks are held behind closed doors.

In a bid to revive US factories, the White House has proposed raising the regional automotive rules of origin for passenger cars to 85% from 62.5% and adding a US-specific requirement of 50%. The US says the changes are to reduce a trade deficit with Mexico, which it says results from companies moving factories south of the border to take advantage of cheaper labour.

Vehicle makers warn the proposals would up-end supply chains. Canada at the last negotiating round in Montreal put forward some fresh ideas on how to calculate the value of regional content in vehicles, including giving more credit for driverless and electric cars, plus research and development work. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer called the Canadian proposal on cars “vague” and argued it would reduce the share of a vehicle made within the region.

Mexico’s automobile association, AMIA, opposes a higher content rule for cars, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo has signalled a recognition that the rules probably need to be strengthened to reach a deal.

The US, Mexico and Canada began renegotiating the Nafta agreement in August at the initiative of President Donald Trump, who has promised to negotiate a better deal for the US or withdraw. Talks, organised into rounds, have rotated between Washington, Mexico City, Ottawa and Montreal over the past six months.

Citigroup Inc., owner of Mexico’s second-largest bank, said the Latin American nation would suffer along with the U.S. and Canada if the Trump administration abandons the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“We certainly hope it doesn’t happen because it’s a negative for all three countries and it has a material impact on manufacturing and supply chains,” Jane Fraser, chief executive officer of the bank’s Latin American unit, said Tuesday at a conference sponsored by Credit Suisse Group AG in Florida. “We hope that all partners remain at the table because I think there is a significant win-win from a modernized version.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to overturn U.S. trade policy and bring down the country’s massive, persistent trade deficits.

After a year in the White House, he still has a lot of work to do.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the U.S. trade deficit in goods and services rose 12 percent to $566 billion last year, biggest since 2008. A record $2.9 trillion in imports swamped $2.3 trillion in exports last year.

The deficit in the goods trade with China — frequently accused of unfair trading practices by the White House — hit a record $375.2 billion in 2017. The goods gap with Mexico climbed to $71.1 billion.

“Trump’s trade team has not been able to stem the flood of imports into the country yet,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank.

The Flip Side of Good Times

Trump likes to boast about the American economy’s strength. Economic growth rose to 2.3 percent last year from 1.5 percent in 2016, despite getting off to a slow start in 2017. The unemployment rate is idling at a 17-year low 4.1 percent. Wages finally seem to be growing.

Recent history shows that the trade deficit tends to grow when times are good and shrink when they turn bad. The trade gap hit a record $762 billion in 2006 toward the end of a six-year economic expansion. It dropped to $384 billion in 2009, in the depths of the Great Recession as American consumers hunkered down and bought fewer imports.

“If the goal is to reduce the trade deficit, we know how to do that — just send our economy crashing and we won’t be able to afford to import as much,” says Bryan Riley, director of the conservative National Taxpayers Union’s Free Trade Initiative.

Tough Talk, Little Action

On the campaign trail, candidate Trump talked tough on trade. He threatened to slap big tariffs on Chinese and Mexican imports and said he’d tear up trade treaties and sanction China for manipulating its currency.

He’s been more cautious since taking office.

The trade gap grew even though the U.S. dollar dropped nearly 7 percent last year against the currencies of its major trading partners, a move that gives U.S. companies a price edge in foreign markets and makes imports pricier in America.

Dean Baker, senior economist at the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research, says it takes time for a weaker dollar to have an impact on the trade balance.

Countries run trade deficits when they buy more products from other countries than they sell and run surpluses when they export more than they import. The United States has not turned a trade surplus since 1975, when Gerald Ford sat in the White House and “Jaws” ruled the box office.

Why hasn’t Trump been able to begin rebalancing America’s lop-sided trade relationship with the rest of the world? Economists and trade analysts offer several explanations:

Yes, he withdrew from an Asia-Pacific trade pact negotiated by the Obama administration.

But he abandoned plans to label China a currency manipulator. His attempt to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico — which he labeled a job-killing “disaster” — has bogged down amid resistance from Ottawa, Mexico City and U.S. businesses and farmers that enjoy NAFTA’s market-opening benefits.

U.S. investigations into whether cheap aluminum and steel imports threaten U.S. national security, which could lead to trade sanctions, have been delayed by pressure from U.S. companies that consume steel and aluminum.

“It’s not surprising that the deficit is up because in Year One there has been a wide gulf between Trump’s fiery trade rhetoric and action,” says Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch and a critic of NAFTA and other trade deals. “So the same failed trade policy Trump attacked as a candidate is still in place.”

Sailing Against Strong Economic Currents

Even if Trump began aggressively taxing imports and strong-arming other countries into meeting his demands to buy U.S. exports, he still likely would find it hard to make a big dent in America’s trade deficit.

“Trade deficits are generally not susceptible to manipulation through trade policy,” says Phil Levy, senior fellow on the global economy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Levy notes that Germany runs a big trade surplus and France a deficit even though both operate under the European Union’s common trade rules.

Instead, trade deficits are the consequence of bigger economic forces. The United States spends more than it saves. Just look at budget deficits in Washington and credit-card balances in American households. When you spend more than you produce, imports fill the gap.

Mexico’s foreign relations secretary said Friday that it might come as a surprise but his country’s relationship with the United States today is “more fluid” and “closer” than it was with previous U.S. administrations.

Mexico has had well-publicized disagreements with President Donald Trump during the past year over trade, immigration and payment for a proposed border wall. But Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Videgaray said that “with the Trump administration, we’re committed to having a very close communication and that has proven to be a tremendous benefit for the relationship.”

“It might be surprising to some people, but that’s a fact of life,” Videgaray said at a joint news conference in Mexico with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland. The three countries are currently renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Tillerson’s stop in Mexico kicked off a six-day Latin America trip that will also take him to Panama, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Jamaica. He was greeted in Mexico City by a handful of protesters holding up signs reading “Dreamers, Trump’s hostages,” and “We are workers, not terrorists, not criminals.”

The three spoke about security concerns, especially the trafficking in opiates and synthetic opiates like fentanyl that have caused a wave of overdose deaths.

“Given the deadly nature of the opioid crisis, we must do more to attack the business model of those who traffic drugs and guns,” said Tillerson.

Asked about reports of Russian meddling in Mexico’s July 1 presidential elections, Tillerson said “we know that Russia has fingerprints on elections around the world … my advice to Mexico would be to pay attention.”

The three officials said they also discussed the political and economic crisis in Venezuela and its government’s decision to push up presidential elections to April under conditions that opponents say overwhelmingly favor President Nicolas Maduro, who is so far the only candidate.

“We shared our concerns for the humanitarian crisis that has unfolded in Venezuela,” Tillerson said. “We all urge the Maduro regime to return to free, open credible, democratic elections.”

Videgaray was quick to note that Mexico has limits on how far it will go in pressuring Venezuela.

“Mexico will in no case support any option that implies violence,” Videgaray said.

Tillerson said the United States wants to see a “peaceful transition.”

“If President Maduro would return to the Venezuelan constitution, restore the duly elected assembly, dismantle the illegitimate constituent assembly and return to free and fair elections, then he’s happy to stay and run in the free and fair elections,” Tillerson said. “If he wants to step aside and let someone else run in them, that’s fine.”

Venezuelan officials condemned Tillerson’s remarks earlier Thursday at the University of Texas. Tillerson said that throughout the course of Latin America’s history it has often been the military which has stepped in to “manage a peaceful transition.”

That stung the Venezuelan government, whose soldiers have reportedly been going hungry like much of the rest of the population.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez went on state television Friday, flanked by a half-dozen military officers in uniform, to denounce Tillerson’s comments. He said Venezuela’s military is united and would never succumb to the influence of a foreign power.

“You don’t know what you are doing,” he said. “I invite you to correct yourself.”

Venezuelan officials accused Tillerson of using his current trip to increase pressure on governments around the region to join the U.S. in “a perverse plan of aggressions against Venezuela.”

Leaders of 27 metropolitan Chambers of Commerce from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico will gather in Montreal on Monday to send a strong message that they are collectively united in favour of the North American Free Trade Agreement. 

“As representatives of the business community and Canada, Mexico and the U.S., we think it’s important that all governments from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico understand that we are in support of NAFTA and that we share a common desire to maintain free trade between us,” Zoe Addington, Calgary Chamber’s director of policy, told CBC News.

The meeting, which is an initiative of the Canadian Global Cities Council, will see eight Canadian, eleven American and eight Mexican chambers in attendance — collectively representing economic zones worth more than $1.4 trillion US. 

“NAFTA is an exceptionally good deal for all three countries,” said Addington.

“NAFTA has created economic ties between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico that have quadrupled trade, have increased investment and increased jobs.”

The trade agreement adds up to over $1.5 trillion US annually, and that 14 million jobs in the U.S., two million in Canada and three million in Mexico depend on trade between the three countries, said Addington.

In Canada, Alberta is the second-most dependent province on NAFTA — in 2015, 88 per cent of exports from the province went to either the U.S. or Mexico.

New Brunswick and Ontario would also likely be hit hard if the deal were to crumble.

Rumours have swirled about the possibility the upcoming round of talks in Montreal (set to run from Jan. 23 to 29) could signal the collapse of the free trade agreement. 

But Addington said worried onlookers should consider the talks as an “opportunity to modernize a 23-year-old agreement.”

“There are still positives to the renegotiation — as long as there is still an agreement at the end,” she said. 

Leaders of the Chambers of Commerce from the following cities are set to attend Monday’s meeting: Winnipeg, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Edmonton, Calgary, Brampton, St-Louis, San Antonio, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Detroit, Dallas, Cleveland, Charlotte, Boston, Albany, Veracruz, Toluca, Tijuana, Querétaro, Monterrey, Mexico City, Mérida and Chihuahua.

Mexico’s central bank said Tuesday it will seek to bolster the peso amid concerns that the U.S. tax overhaul could reduce investment flows to Mexico.

The Bank of Mexico said it would increase the currency coverage contracts it auctions to cushion the risk of holding pesos. The bank said it will add $500 million in non-deliverable, renewable forwards to its initial offering of $5 billion.

Mexico’s currency market has been highly volatile in recent days, with the peso dropping as low as 19.72 to the dollar in trading Friday. And the bank’s move Tuesday did not spark a peso rally as the 48-hour interbank rate closed even weaker at 19.88 to $1.