MEXICO CITY, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Mexico is refining "bit by bit" its objectives ahead of the second round of talks for the the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiation in September, Mexican Minister of Finance Jose Antonio Meade said on Monday.
The first round of talks between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico concluded on Sunday in U.S. capital Washington, with a commitment from all three sides to hold the talks at an accelerated pace. The second round will take place in Mexico City from September 1 to 5.
"For financial services, we have not exchanged texts, we are identifying our goal for each part of financial services," he added.
The minister said this is good news for financial markets since the negotiations on this topic are proceeding in an orderly matter, with no surprises coming out of the initial talks.
The trilateral dialogue began on August 16 with a complaint by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, saying NAFTA had cost the U.S. 700,000 jobs since 1994.
"We feel it is good news for us and for the markets that differences are being channelled through formal negotiation, which continues to make the North American region more competitive and dynamic," said Meade.
NAFTA is the largest free-trade area in the world. It is five times the size of the European Union and extends its umbrella to around 474 million people.
