To mark the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the head of the Mexican Consulate in Kansas City appeared in front of about 25 people at the Dole Institute of Politics Thursday to discuss the agreement’s future.

Alicia Guadalupe Kerber Palma described how exports and investments in Mexico and in the other two participating countries, Canada and the United States, have soared under the agreement’s two decades. But she also spoke at length about the three countries’ efforts to ensure that trade among them remains as streamlined as possible.

“The medium class has grown,” Kerber Palma said of Mexico. “We are growing, we are producing, we are working.”

Upon its inception, NAFTA became the world’s largest free trade area, connecting 450 million people and $17 trillion worth of goods and services, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. Kerber Palma said that since NAFTA came into force, Mexico has become a top-ten exporter globally in several fields, including aerospace equipment, mobile phones, refrigerators and flat-screen televisions, among others.

She described three new partnerships the member countries recently formed to ensure that each remains a bastion of economic opportunities. They focus on things such as higher education, the cross-border transportation of goods and developing small and medium business enterprises.

“You have to recognize that the border of Mexico is [about] more than just migration, it’s a market,” Kerber Palma said.

She also expressed a desire for the three member countries to one day achieve a mutual identity like that of Europe. Despite cultural similarities with countries to the south, Kerber Palma said, Mexico thinks of itself as more North American than Central or South American.

She said the business and education relationships developed between Mexico and the rest of the continent “identify us more with North America than the other regions.”