The newly appointed president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), José Medina Mora, promised to work together with President Claudia Sheinbaum in the renegotiation of the TMEC to achieve the “best tariff conditions” for the country.
“The Government has to do its part, we also have to do our part and be in that dialogue with the government. We need a strong and united voice from Mexico (…) We must be able to negotiate better tariff conditions for the countries with which we compete,” said Medina in his first speech as the highest representative of Mexican businessmen.
As he explained, his objective is to work together with Sheinbaum to achieve the “best commercial conditions” for Mexico in the review of the treaty next year.
In this sense, he claimed the country as the “number one” trading partner of the United States, being the one that “buys and sells from it the most,” which in his opinion “evidences the integration” of both economies.
For this reason, the president of the CCE valued the dialogue with business organizations from the neighboring country, with whom they are seeing the points where “it is convenient for both of them to continue in the treaty.”
His job in this negotiation, he added, is to contribute “what can enrich the proposals to make them better.”
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He called for national unity to reach a good agreement in an international context of “difficult conditions”, in which he hopes that the White House’s tariffs towards Mexico will be “the lowest possible” due to the benefits that the free trade agreement brings to both countries.
“The position of the United States has been difficult, but the president, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum, has known how to have a relationship with serenity, with a cool head, which has allowed for good negotiation and that is how we hope it will continue to be and, of course, we are going to support that part,” he stated.
The USMCA, signed in 2018 during the first presidency of Donald Trump (2017-2021), started on July 1, 2020 to replace the previous one – NAFTA signed in the 1990s – and modernize the trade framework of the three North American neighbors.
Apart from promoting the review of the USMCA, Medina Mora explained the other priorities of the Mexican business community, among which he highlighted the need to promote foreign and national investment, which currently, he added, represents 22% of the GDP.
“The first priority has to do with reactivating investment. Mexico needs to grow and for the economy to grow we need to reactivate investment. So we will be working to ensure that there are no excuses to invest in unblocking all the problems that may exist so that investment projects are consolidated,” he stressed.
This is something they “share” with Sheinbaum, with whom he was able to meet this week to outline the priorities of his mandate.
He also highlighted the need for the CCE to be “everyone’s house” in which large, medium and small companies are included and represented to achieve “greater economic integration.”
The new president of the CCE was formally elected unanimously this Wednesday, at the end of the Ordinary General Assembly of the entity.
With information from EFE
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