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 The U.S. presidential race has been peppered with promises to
rework trade policy in the United States' favor, and many of the
strongest attacks have been against the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), a trade accord between the United States, Mexico
and Canada that took effect in 1994.
Regarded by Mexican policymakers as a milestone in the country's
economic modernization, NAFTA has been vilified by Republican
front-runner Trump and Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders as a
job-killing betrayal of U.S. industry.
Zoellick, a Republican who also served as U.S. Trade Representative
under President George W. Bush, said Mexican officials had
understandably been unsettled by Trump's rhetoric and flagging U.S.
congressional support for free trade.
"The bigger issue in the U.S. will be a need to remake the case for
trade," he said in a phone interview.
That meant more than the traditional corporate lobbying in Congress,
said Zoellick, who was World Bank chief from 2007-2012.
 "This is now going to need a broader public push. Part of this will
be a challenge to get the Facebooks, the Googles the Apples and
others to not only make the case in Washington, but actually use
social media, use big data resources and others to explain this to
coming generations of Americans," he said.
While noting that some Americans had good reason to feel concern
about the pace of change and unfettered immigration, Zoellick said
Mexico, a "significant, modernizing economy", ought to be integrated
further into U.S. thinking.
"If it were up to me, I would bring Canada and Mexico into the TTIP
negotiations with Europe," he said, referring to the Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership, a planned trade deal between the
United States and the European Union.
After China and Canada, Mexico is the United States' third biggest
trade partner, accounting for bilateral commerce worth around $500
billion annually. The United States is also home to an estimated 35
million people of Mexican origin.
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Claiming Mexico is "killing" the United States on trade and sending
rapists and drug runners north, Trump has threatened to impose
tariffs against Mexico and vowed to build a wall to stop illegal
immigrants crossing the border.
To make Mexico pay for the wall, he has threatened to block billions
of dollars in remittances sent home by Mexicans in the United
States, a plan Zoellick described as "outrageous."
"As an American, frankly, I'm embarrassed by his statements," he
said. However, he noted the Mexican government had to "walk a fine
line" in countering Trump without stoking more tensions.
A number of serving and former Mexican officials believe their
government could have been more active in persuading U.S. businesses
and politicians to make the case that both countries will lose out
if Trump's talk becomes reality.
Zoellick said, however, it was a shared responsibility.
"Depending on one's perspective, this is really ... the U.S.'s
burden to bear. And so while I concur that one would welcome
assistance from Mexico, in some ways we've got to get our own act
cleaned up in the U.S. first," he said.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Simon Gardner, Bernard Orr)
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