Quotes from Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal

We are willing to consider any rebalancing as long as it's through trade expansion, not through trade restriction. As long as it's about how can we buy more from each other, we're willing to work that way.

I do believe that as the country becomes more attractive in the manufacturing sector, salaries can improve, and opportunities can expand.

The Pacific Alliance is an initiative to align our economies.

We believe more in bridges and making the border better.

I'm sure the apple guys from Washington state or the corn guy from Iowa will not like tariffs on corn or apples.

At the end of the day, we have to find a way to compete better with the world.

You cannot have an agreement... that gives a tailor's cut, a perfect handiwork, to a specific company.

We can be a very natural partner as a support base for Ireland to use Mexico to enter into the North American and South American markets and for Mexico, in turn, to really take advantage of Ireland as a gateway to the European markets.

I'm not going to negotiate with Brazil for its pretty face. I'm going to negotiate with Brazil because they're going to open their car-manufacturing market.

The list of traceability for some automotive components needs to be rethought for new technologies to send adequate signals about the strengthening of the value chains in North America.

E-commerce, telecom - those things have to be captured by the new NAFTA.

Opening the Pandora's box of tariffs will be an endless game, and it will be a lose-lose proposition.

Every challenge has the opportunity to convert into a winning proposition.

If a private investor is raising his hand and saying, 'I don't have the conditions with which to work,' then the government has the responsibility to create those conditions.

At the end of the day, we have obviously our own political realities that will not allow us to approve something that is not in the benefit of everybody.

One of the good things that's happening in manufacturing in Mexico is that the old maquiladora that was relegated to just assembling things has changed in different sectors. One of these sectors is the aerospace industry and in how we attract workers that have been in technical school.

You cannot set salaries by decree. At the end of the day, it doesn't work with the market. What you can make sure to do is to train workers in order to make them more efficient and demand higher salaries because of their qualifications.

If there is any action that punishes imports to the North American market and encourages U.S. exports, you have to reflect it in a mirror action to counteract the change of incentives that this would make for activity and investment in Mexico.

NAFTA will continue to regulate the relationship between Mexico and Canada.

We must ensure that decisions we make today do not come back to haunt us tomorrow.

There is no one trade agreement in the world that has country-specific content. It doesn't exist. Content has to be measured regionally.

You know how it is: when you politicize things, it is not the best ingredient to get things done.

We understand U.S. position, but we have to find a way to make trade translate into better jobs in North America.

NAFTA, by itself, will not collapse. The possibility is that the United States leaves the treaty, but the treaty itself would keep regulating relations between Canada and Mexico.