NAFTA Commission Meeting in Washington Issues Statement for Continued Cooperation
April 5, 2012
The NAFTA Commission Meeting held on April 3rd in Washington DC issued a joint statement that outlines continued cooperation of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to increase economic competitiveness and trade among the 3 nations. Since NAFTA was signed in 1994 trade has more than tripled from $288 billion to $1 trillion.
Among the significant agreements reached at this meeting are to continue to combat challenges to Intellectual Property Infringement (IPR) to fight piracy and counterfeiting. The U.S. and Canada are among the six countries that have joined the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Mexico is in the process of working on comprehensive reform to its legal system to enable it to achieve the high standards pursued under ACTA.
A focus of this meeting was the challenges faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), including lack of access to information and reducing unnecessary barriers and costs for these enterprises.
Press Release