NAFTA: Handling Uncertain Trading Times

Mexico is Kansas City’s second-largest export market after Canada, which means the stakes are high for our city as with the Trump administration’s efforts to revise the North American Free Trade Act.

With Kansas City companies exporting primarily automobile parts, agriculture, and food supply products, the NAFTA revisions are still too ambiguous to anticipate how the changes will affect the local market. So says Narbeli Galindo, director of international affairs for the Kansas City Economic Development Corp.

“Kansas City, Missouri, is a city that trades immensely with Mexico and Canada, and I think that if we eventually make some changes on what can be restricted, it could be of a benefit or not, but it all depends on the changes they make,” Galindo says. “The concern I think companies have right now is how is this going to impact us? Are there going to be tariffs? But that’s still very hard to determine at this moment.”

She recommends that companies looking to work with Mexico and Canada stay engaged and use all available resources to navigate the murky waters.

“There are resources that are available through the city, the state,  the U.S. Commercial Service and the World Trade Center,” Galindo says. “Whether its developing a business plan or finding the right logistics company,  we can all together provide companies with resources to connect them with the right organization, the right distributor, and provide them with what’s needed and help them to understand what is changing.”