That's very kind, sir. We are very honoured to be able to talk to you and to state the position of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico. Our membership comprises around 300 Canadian companies that have ventured to invest in this country, that trade actively, and that are very much concerned and interested in ensuring that NAFTA is defended.
As stated in an open letter to President Peña on January 17 of this year, sir, the chamber considers NAFTA to be the main international trading asset of the three countries, and certainly of Canada and Mexico, in our view. I have here this open letter that was published in one of the main national newspapers. We also said that, after so many years of being in full force, the agreement certainly is fit to be modernized, and we consider TPP a very good reference for that exercise. It's an exercise that has already been done, which Canada and Mexico were a part of.
We also said that modernization should always be directed toward increasing the competitiveness of the North American region, which is something that NAFTA achieved in the many years of being in force, so to ensure that we have an increasing value within all the trade chains and all the investment chains.
The last we thing we said is that Canada—and this is the message for Mexico—is a reliable partner. Our position is that this should be a trilateral negotiation since NAFTA is a trilateral deal. As happened during the negotiations many years ago—anecdotally, I was a negotiator in those days—Canada and Mexico, if they joined forces, could do a good job in ensuring that it gets modernized.
Finally, in reading the letter that was sent by the USTR representative Mr. Lighthizer to the Senate, we are happy to read that Mr. Lighthizer is explicitly mentioning the concept of modernizing NAFTA. We wholly subscribe to that objective. This modernization, I think, is on our agenda. In particular, it is on the agenda of the Mexican government. We very much support that approach. Again, we consider that the TPP will be the main reference.
Finally, whatever happened with that negotiation, this is also a position we have stated publicly and in other forums to our representatives in Canada and Mexico. We consider that Mexico and Canada should reinforce their bilateral relationship within NAFTA, under the aegis of NAFTA, or elsewhere. There are many avenues to achieve that.
Whatever happens to NAFTA and that negotiation, certainly they should push for a successful TPP negotiation if the 11 countries left are able to launch it without one of the members that quit. The position of the chamber is that such an option should be explored, and I think it would be worth it.
That is what I have to say, sir.