The first round of the NAFTA renegotiation between the United States, Canada and Mexico began this week in Washington, D.C. Labor and environmental rules, intellectual property rights and dispute settlement are all part of the negotiations – issues that impact all of our clients with business operations in North America. Companies in the agriculture, automotive and technology industries will be the focus of particularly tough negotiations and will need to ensure positive results to sustain business growth for years to come.
While government relations teams are likely to be deeply engaged in every aspect of the NAFTA renegotiation effort, they may not be considering the positive benefit of using marketing and communications to bolster support for their positions with employees, stakeholders and the public.
We have created a consideration checklist for companies regarding ways communications plays a role in this critically important business issue, including message development, stakeholder mapping and partner engagement, executive positioning, employee engagement, risk assessment and negotiations monitoring.