Under the NAFTA, pursuant to the Parties' (NAFTA governments') obligation to establish, permanent, national Section offices in each country, Canada and the United States simply renamed their existing national Sections to the NAFTA Secretariat, Canadian Section and the United States Section, respectively, and Mexico established its own national Section. The NAFTA Secretariat is comprised of:
the Canadian Section located in Ottawa;
the Mexican Section located in Mexico City; and
the United States Section located in Washington, D.C.
The national sections, which are "mirror-images" of each other, are each headed by a Secretary appointed by their respective government. The Parties are responsible for the costs of operating their national section of the Secretariat.