MEXICO CITY: Mexico and Canada aim to finish reworking less contentious chapters of the NAFTA trade deal with the US in new talks that began on Sunday, hoping to clear the path for a breakthrough on the toughest issues before upcoming elections.
In six months, negotiators have made progress on the technical details of a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement, but made little advance on strong demands for change made by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Ranging from calls for major changes to automotive content rules and dispute resolution mechanisms, to imposing a clause that could automatically kill NAFTA after five years, the chief stumbling blocks laid by the White House look unlikely to be removed in the latest Mexico City round, officials said.
Trump frequently threatens to walk away from NAFTA unless big changes are made to a pact he blames for US manufacturing job losses.
“I think there’s going to be major progress on the technical issues and major obstacles on the critical issues,” Bosco de la Vega, head of the Mexico’s National Agricultural Council farm lobby, said of the talks running until March 5.
Once agreement is reached on technical chapters such as state-owned enterprises, barriers to trade and e-commerce, about 10 percent of the modernized accord would eventually be left over for political leaders to work out, de la Vega estimated.
A schedule for the latest round showed that the discussions for the first three days would include rules of origin, an issue at the heart of the Trump administration’s demand to raise the amount of auto content sourced from the NAFTA region.
Under NAFTA, at least 62.5 percent of the net cost of a passenger car or light truck must originate in the region to avoid tariffs. Trump wants the threshold raised to 85 percent.
“You can’t have a successful negotiation if there’s no change to the rules of origin,” said a Mexican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding: “It won’t be 85 percent. We’re not sure what the number is going to be.”
Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo has said his negotiating team aims to present a proposal on rules of origin, although he has not provided details.
On Sunday evening, the Mexican official told Reuters: “We don’t have a counterproposal yet.”
Any final agreement would need to be reached between Trump and auto-sector leaders in the US who oversee the NAFTA region, an industry source close to the process said.
The North American auto industry has pushed back against Trump’s demands, arguing they would damage competitiveness and regional supply chains.
Mexico aims to build on the previous round in Montreal, when Canada floated proposals to address US demands, including one to include costs for engineering, research and development and other items in the total value of an auto.
The schedule showed that several chapters that negotiators have signaled are close to concluding, including e-commerce, telecommunications and energy, are up for discussion toward the end of the round. Financial services will last for three days.
The latest round comes amid flare-ups between Washington and Ottawa and growing, if cautious, optimism in Mexico that the trade agreement will remain.
Talks are running behind schedule and some officials believe the longer they last, the less likely it is that Trump will dump NAFTA.
Negotiators had wanted to wrap up talks by March to avoid them being politicized by Mexico’s July presidential election. US congressional elections in November could also complicate the talks.
But officials have raised the possibility that they will run past Mexico’s vote, and some said they could continue at a technical level for several months if necessary.
A US official said: “There has never been a hard deadline,” and belief is growing among Mexicans following the process that lobbying efforts by US business leaders and politicians to preserve NAFTA have been gaining traction.
The office of Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton on Friday published a letter sent this month to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in which he urged him to “preserve and expand market access” under NAFTA, and build on existing ties.
While pledging to stay in the talks, Canada’s chief negotiator, Steve Verheul, struck a downbeat tone last week, telling a business audience: “There are large gaps between what we’re trying to achieve and what the US is trying to achieve.”
New NAFTA talks aim to clear pathway to toughest issues
New NAFTA talks aim to clear pathway to toughest issues
Saudi Arabia sets global benchmark in AI modernization
- Executives hail the Kingdom’s robust infrastructure and strategic workforce programs
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is emerging as a global leader in artificial intelligence, according to executives from OpenText, one of the world’s largest enterprise information management companies.
With 22 years of international AI experience, Harald Adams, OpenText’s senior vice president of sales for international markets, said the Kingdom’s modernization efforts are now setting a global standard.
“From my perspective, Saudi Arabia is not only leading the modernization towards artificial intelligence in the Middle East, I think it is even not leading it only in the MENA region. I think it is leading it globally,” Adams told Arab News.
In an interview, Adams and George Schembri, vice president and general manager for the Middle East at OpenText, discussed the Kingdom’s significant investments in AI during the inauguration of OpenText’s new regional headquarters in Riyadh.
“So for us (OpenText), from our perspective, it was a strategic decision to move our MENA headquarters to Saudi Arabia because we believe that we will see here a lot of innovation coming out of the country, we can replicate not only to the MENA region, maybe even further to the global level,” Adams said.
The new headquarters, located in the King Abdullah Financial District, will serve as a central hub for OpenText customers and partners across the Middle East. Its opening reflects a broader trend of tech giants relocating to Riyadh, signaling the Kingdom’s rise as a hub for global AI innovation.
Adams attributed Saudi Arabia’s lead in AI modernization to a combination of substantial financial backing, a unified national strategy, and a remarkable pace of execution.
“I mean, a couple of things, because the ingredients in Saudi Arabia are of course, quite interesting. On the one hand side, Saudi Arabia has deep pockets and great ambitions. And they are, I mean, and they are executing fast, yeah,” he said.
“So from that perspective, at the moment, what we see is that there are, especially on the government side, I can’t see any other government organizations globally moving faster into that direction than it is happening in Saudi Arabia. Not in the region, not even on a global level, they are leading the game,” he underlined.
Schembri added, “Saudi’s AI vision is one of the most ambitious in the world, and AI on a national scale is not good without trusted, secured, and governed, and this is where OpenText helps to enable the Saudi organizations to be able to deliver on the 2030 Vision.”
“The Kingdom’s focus on AI and digital transformation creates a powerful opportunity for organizations to unlock value from their information,” Schembri stated.
“With OpenText on the ground in Riyadh, our customers gain direct access to trusted global expertise combined with local insight — enabling them to manage information securely, scale AI with confidence, and compete on a global stage,” he added.
DID YOU KNOW?
• Saudi Arabia ranks 5th globally and 1st in the region for AI growth under the 2025 Global AI Index.
• The Kingdom is also 3rd globally in advanced AI model development, trailing only the US and China.
• AI is projected to contribute $235.2 billion — or 12.4 percent — to Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 2030.
The inauguration of OpenText’s new regional headquarters was attended by Canada’s Minister of International Trade and Economic Development, Maninder Sidhu, and Jean-Philippe Linteau, Canada’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Sidhu emphasized the alignment of Saudi Vision 2030 with Canada’s economic and innovation goals.
“His Highness (Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman) and Vision 2030, there is a lot of alignment with Canada, as you know, with the economic collaboration, with his vision around mining, around education, tourism, healthcare, you look at AI and tech, there’s a lot of alignment here at OpenText Grand opening their regional headquarters,” Sidhu told Arab News.
Saudi Arabia’s AI ambitions are projected to contribute $235.2 billion — or 12.4 percent — to its GDP by 2030, according to PwC. The Saudi Data and AI Authority, established by a royal decree in 2019, drives the Kingdom’s national data and AI strategy.
One flagship initiative, Humain, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was launched in May 2025 under the Public Investment Fund. It aims to build a full AI stack — from data centers and cloud infrastructure to models and applications — positioning Saudi Arabia as a globally competitive AI hub. The project plans to establish a data center capacity of 1.8 GW by 2030 and 100 GW of AI compute capacity by 2026.
Saudi Arabia is also expanding international partnerships. In May 2025, Humain signed a $5 billion agreement with Amazon Web Services to accelerate AI adoption domestically and globally, focusing on infrastructure, services, and talent development.
The Kingdom ranked fifth globally and first in the Arab region for AI sector growth under the 2025 Global AI Index, and third worldwide in advanced AI model development, behind only the US and China, according to the Stanford University AI Index 2025.
Education is another pillar of Saudi AI strategy. Starting in the 2025-26 academic year, AI will be taught as a core subject across all public school grades, reaching roughly 6.7 million students. The curriculum will cover algorithmic thinking, data literacy, and AI ethics.
OpenText executives emphasized their commitment to supporting Vision 2030 and the national AI strategy through workforce development.
“OpenText has put a lot of investment in the Kingdom, right. We brought cloud to the Kingdom, we’ve opened our headquarters in the Kingdom, we’ve basically hiring Saudis in the Kingdom, We basically building, if you like, an ecosystem to support the Kingdom. And on top of that, what we’re doing is we’re putting a plan together, if you like, a program to look at how we can educate, if you like, the students at universities,” Schembri said.
“So this is something that we are looking into, we are basically investigating and to see how we can support the Saudi nationals when they come into the workplace. And I’m really excited. I have Harry who is, our leadership who’s supporting this program.”
“It’s something that we are putting together. It’ll take some effort. So it’s still in play because we want to make sure what we put it basically delivers on what we're trying to achieve based on the vision of Saudi,” he added.
“The younger generation is sooner or later either working for us or maybe for a partner or for maybe for a customer. So that’s why we are to 100 percent committed to enable all of that,” Adams said.
