Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal

“Free trade and economic stability do not, by themselves, guarantee success.”

“A scenario without NAFTA is something we have to think about.”

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

“The end-to-end value chain analysis proposed by the World Economic Forum has proved to be useful methodology, not only to identify trade barriers but also to highlight the importance of coordination among public-sector institutions.”

“Mexico is very well positioned in the IT sector, thanks to our closeness to North America and how things are being developed in Silicon Valley.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”