“The best thing is free trade, not imposing tariffs, tariffs, not closing us down.” Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
The most positive for Mexico from the North American Summit is that he ratified that, despite the political speeches, President López Obrador himself acknowledges that Mexico’s future is tied to North America and in particular the relationship with USA. North America is the destiny of 83 percent of our exports, but the United States alone accounts for 80 percent. Latin America can be the subject of many speeches romanticand of undeniable cultural affinitiesbut the economy mexicana is tied to USA.
AMLO, However, he thinks that the best way to benefit from this relationship is to build a protectionist fortress and reach out for alms. This January 9, he asked in the bilateral meeting with the president of United States, Joe Bidenand his cabinet: “Couldn’t we produce in America what we consume? Of course we can.” Yesterday you spoke of the need to achieve a “import substitution”. On Monday he added: “The only important thing, really, that has been done in terms of cooperation for development in our continent in more than half a century” was the Alliance for Progress. This was a program to help Latin America powered by John F. Kennedy in the sixties.
Our country, however, does not need a protectionism that limits the imports from other regions, nor a program of financial assistance. On the contrary, we need an open economy to increase our competitiveness. Mexico will not achieve greater development with handouts, but with a better use of the Mexico-United States-Canada Treaty to push higher investment Y growth.
We are not going to achieve this if we take measures that weaken investment and production. The main problem we are already registering in energy. In the effort to rebuild the monopolies of Pemex and the CFE, the government has blocked new investments and closed production facilities that were already operating. All it is doing is making our economy less competitive.
Mexico You have a unique opportunity to take a giant leap forward. China is no longer a reliable supplier for the United States, while the Russian invasion of Ukraine has limited investment opportunities in Eastern Europe. The USMCA lIt allows our country to attract a lot of that new investment, as long as we don’t destroy it ourselves.
Trying to back out of the rules USMCA, simply because the president López Obrador wants to unilaterally close the energy market, or because you want to ban imports of products you are prejudiced against, such as glyphosate or the transgenic corn, is not the way to maintain and expand these opportunities. Yesterday the participants in the summit made the decision to exclude the issue of Energy of the trilateral meeting, but not because they already had an agreement, but because they wanted to prevent the summit from ending with an insurmountable difference. This does not mean, however, that Canada and United States are going to give in to the claims of Lopez Obrador. Yes Mexico does not back down in its attempt to change the rules of the USMCAyou will have to face a panel of controversy that you will surely lose, because no country can change a treaty unilaterally.
We shouldn’t even be trying to change these rules. Mexico is the main beneficiary of an open market. If we stick with it, we can build a more prosperous economy. without having to beg our wealthy neighbors.
We do not notify “We didn’t notify you in time that the United States Attorney was coming.“, explained Marcelo Ebrard about the absence of the prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero of the summit. The explanation is hardly credible; but, if it were true, it would be an incredible display of the inefficiency of our government.
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