International Trade committee  That's a beautiful city.

International Trade committee  I want to thank you, and to thank the committee. It's a pleasure and an honour to be a part of these hearings, and it's certainly extremely timely. I know you didn't plan it like that, but of course today is the official notification on behalf of the USTR vis-à-vis Congress and

International Trade committee  That's excellent news, sir. Thank you.

International Trade committee  Absolutely.

International Trade committee  It's in Mexico State, which is actually the largest state in Mexico. Mexico State has 16 million inhabitants, so it's a very important election. It's also a bellwether election. It's a state that the PRI has never lost. To be frank, it plays horribly. Perhaps the great advantage

International Trade committee  Security is certainly a linchpin. It's a very difficult issue. Of course, you have American guns being used for organized crime here in Mexico. The money that is being used to corrupt our local police officers is also coming from this narco traffic. What ends up happening is that

International Trade committee  Oh, I'm sorry.

International Trade committee  Is that to me or Armando?

International Trade committee  The quick answer is that we have engaged very poorly. There are millions of relationships that are going on, and they are very localized. Our border cities, our sister cities, unfortunately, have the tendency to look up and down. We call it the silo mentality. They look north and

International Trade committee  Thank you, Ms. Ramsey, first of all, for sharing a vision. I grew up partly in Canada, and these are values that I certainly learned in Canada when I was a little boy. I appreciate hearing that as often as I can. With respect to human rights, it is a huge issue. Certainly, there

International Trade committee  I would start by saying that Canada and Mexico, especially right now, are the adults in the room. I don't see it so much as a counterbalance, inasmuch as we are defending something that is very profoundly an American value. In many ways right now, it is in our hands to pick up th

International Trade committee  Funnily enough, our main priorities are very much in line with that page and a half that USTR Lighthizer mentioned. We see an opportunity to modernize the trade agreement. We are interested in the phytosanitary measures, and there are amazing opportunities in customs procedures,

International Trade committee  Sorry. I'd put myself on mute so that Armando could reply.

International Trade committee  Basically, I've been dealing with our senate, which would be in charge of ratifying TPP. It is currently not a priority, even though I completely agree with you, sir. I think it is something that we should ratify immediately. I think we should take a leadership role. I do know

International Trade committee  Yes, we have. In fact, for us 23 states in the U.S. are either number one or two. We have identified those stakeholders. Unfortunately, and I think this is true across the board, we have not done nearly enough. The efforts have been infinitesimal, in my view, in terms of actually