TOKYO -- With negotiations on revising the North American Free Trade Agreement set to begin Aug. 16, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray insisted Monday that any adjustment to the 23-year-old pact must strengthen the region's competitiveness and benefit all three members: the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

"We do not want NAFTA to jump into the past," Videgaray told the Nikkei Asian Review in an interview in Tokyo. "It is not a zero-sum game. We want to look at the future." The talks will take place Aug. 16-20 in Washington.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called the pact "the single worst trade deal ever approved in this country." The free trade agreement, which took effect in 1994, eliminated virtually all tariffs among the three countries and sparked a dramatic increase in the flow of goods in the region.

Many automakers have established or are building manufacturing plants in Mexico, attracted by the country's low cost of labor and proximity to the huge U.S. market. These include Ford Motor, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Nissan Motor, Mazda Motor, Honda Motor, Toyota Motor, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Daimler and Kia Motors.

Nissan cars, made in Mexico, await transportation to the U.S. market. (Photo by Ken Moriyasu)

Videgaray acknowledged that the world has changed since NAFTA was established and that an upgrade is due. E-commerce, for instance, did not exist then but is now a major part of Mexico's economy, he said. But the foreign minister disputed the notion that the trade deal had taken jobs away from the U.S.

"You have to look into technology to talk about job losses," he said. "Many jobs in the auto industry of the U.S. were not lost to Mexico or to Japan or to China, but because of technology. If you look at the Japanese auto factories in Mexico, you see very few workers and a lot of robots. We have to have the right diagnostics first."

Reducing the U.S. trade deficit should involve more trade, not less, Videgaray said. "There are limits to what you can accomplish with trade agreements," he said. "We welcome moves to address trade deficits, not by decreasing trade, but by doing more trade."

Mexico's top diplomat was open to altering the "rules of origin" regulation regarding the sourcing of products. NAFTA requires that 62.5% of the material in a car or light truck made in Mexico come from within the three treaty nations in order to enter the U.S. without a tariff.

Videgaray said Mexico would welcome a proposal to increase this figure, which would favor NAFTA suppliers over Asian competitors, as long as substitute parts are available in the region and that the prices are competitive.

The foreign minister hopes to conclude the NAFTA negotiations within the year, so as not to overlap with the U.S. midterm elections and Mexican presidential election next year. "We are time constrained," he said. "We have an agreement with Canada and the U.S. to negotiate as soon as possible to avoid this."

Meanwhile, Videgaray expressed support for the "TPP 11," an effort led by Japan to enact the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal with the remaining 11 countries after the U.S. left the agreement. "It is a great initiative," he said. "With some adjustments it can be a good proposition for the rest of us."