WASHINGTON, March 1, 2007 - Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns today announced his travel to Mexico City, to discuss final implementation provisions of the North America Free Trade Agreement with Agriculture Secretary Alberto Cardenas and Economy Secretary Eduardo Sojo, and to renew the U.S-Mexico Consultative Committee on Agriculture.

"United States and Mexico have already benefited tremendously from the free trade provisions of NAFTA and we look forward to full implementation of the agreement," said Johanns. "We have a very good working relationship with Mexico that we want to maintain and build upon. Sustained and constructive engagement between our countries has never been more important to both of our agricultural sectors."

Since implementation of the NAFTA in 1994, two-way agricultural trade with Mexico has risen from $6 billion to more than $20 billion in 2006. Since the first CCA was signed in 2002, U.S. and Mexican agricultural exports to each other have been rising close to $1 billion per year.

Under NAFTA, the United States and Mexico have carried out a broad range of cooperative activities and initiatives aimed at smoothing the transition to free and open trade. Since 2005, the United States has invested nearly $20 million in programs and technical exchanges to assist Mexico in addressing production, distribution and marketing related challenges.