The chief diplomats of Mexico, Canada and the United States met in Washington, D.C. last month to preview the upcoming North American Leaders’ Summit in Toluca, Mexico. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held a joint press availability with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Mexican Foreign Secretary Jose Antonio Meade.

Secretary Kerry praised the strong economic integration that has taken place between Mexico, the United States and Canada since passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.

“Over the past 20 years, we have opened up a new North American marketplace. We have integrated supply chains and re-imagined entire industries, from agriculture to aerospace. Today, North America is far more than the sum of three economies. It’s the collective output of what has become a fully integrated manufacturing center.”

Secretary Kerry continued to expand on the analogy by referring to two of Mexico’s most advanced manufacturing sectors: aerospace and automotive:

“If you buy a car in Mexico, it may well have been assembled in Canada and contained Made-in-America parts. There are workers in Wichita, Kansas putting the finishing touches on aircraft that contain fuselages assembled in Mexico and engines built in Canada. This kind of economic integration is benefiting all three of our nations economically, and has also improved living standards and working conditions across the board.”

Foreign Secretary Meade stressed the benefits that Mexico has brought to this regional economic partnership.

“In the last 20 years, trade in the region multiplied by three, foreign direct investment in the region multiplied by eight. Mexico is now the third trading partner of both the U.S. and Canada. We’re the second and the fifth market of the U.S. and Canada, respectively. Just to put in perspective, Mexico is the first market for exports of Arizona, California, and Texas. We’re the second largest export market for other 20 states. Again, to put the numbers in perspective, exports to Mexico just from the U.S. were larger than exports to China and Japan together. They were larger than the sum of exports to Germany, France, Holland, and the UK put together. And that is a platform over which we have an opportunity to build.”