ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL BUSINESS OUTLOOK Border relief

‘I don’t anybody here who really knows what it all means yet’

Most New Mexico exporters and trade professionals are still trying to decipher the details and analyze the potential impacts of the newly renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement.

More than a year of talks ended Oct. 1, when the U.S. and Canada reached agreement to modify some aspects of the 24-year-old pact that took effect in 1994. Mexico and the U.S. had already completed their negotiations in late August.

Most of the proposed changes are well known, such as a new requirement that 75 percent of components in regionally-built vehicles come from North American producers to qualify for tariff-free import among the NAFTA partners, up from 62.5 percent before, and that

up to 45 percent of those vehicles be built in plants that pay workers at least $16 per hour

U.S. trade negotiators hail those changes as major victories for the auto industry that could increase domestic production and make U.S. manufacturing more competitive with Mexico and other countries.

But the devil is in the details, and most businesses and trade experts are unsure about the long-term impacts.

For now, business remains brisk along the border. But the lack of clarity is frustrating to many.

“I don’t know the impact yet, and that’s the big thing,” said Larry Estorga, plant manager for FXI, which makes foam for auto interiors at one of the Santa Teresa border industrial parks. “A lot of specifics are still unclear, and it’s kind of frustrating not knowing where all this will lead us.” for Guy corrugated DeYoung , general manager box maker Corrugated Synergies International, said business remains normal for now at Santa Teresa, where CSI recently established operations.

“I don’t know anybody here who really knows wHat it all means yet,” DeYoung said. “It will take awhile

JIM THOMPSON/JOURNAL Rio Bravo Brewing cans its own beer at the company’s Albuquerque facility. Rio Bravo is negotiating with Mexican distributors to sell its canned brews at high-end Mexican resort areas.

COURTESY OF J.H. ROSE International shipping company J.H. Rose Logistics loads rolls of steel for transport to Mexico at its facility in Santa Teresa.

Corrugated Synnergies International, which established operations in Santa Teresa last summer, uses a high-tech digital printing process s to pre-print company information, logos and art on sheets that will later be processed into corrugated cardboard packaging boxes.