José Díaz Briseño/ Reform Agency
Friday, March 24, 2023 | 15:46
Washington DC, United States.- The Administration of President Joe Biden will use all persuasion and coercion resources to guarantee a positive climate for US investment in Mexico, the US Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, assured this Friday.
Questioned by various decisions of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, both politically and economically, Tai assured that he will resort to tools inside and outside the Trade Agreement between Mexico, the US and Canada (T-MEC) to protect the investment of his constituents in the country.
“We will do everything we can to guarantee a positive investment climate in Mexico using the tools of the USMCA and the tools that are outside of the USMCA,” said the US Trade Representative at a hearing at the Committee on Ways and Means. of the lower house.
“We are committed to using either powers of persuasion or tools of coercion to right the ship and make sure that we are rowing in the same direction,” Tai added, when asked by Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-California.
US legislators have denounced what they see as the illegal invasion of sailors at the Punta Venados Maritime Terminal in Quintana Roo, under concession to the US firm Vulcan Materials, and have questioned the decree to prohibit the importation of transgenic corn into Mexico.
“We are neighbors and thanks to geography we will always be neighbors. We are committed to using either powers of persuasion or tools of coercion to right the ship and make sure we are rowing in the same direction,” Tai said of the US-Mexico trade relationship. .
“However, at the end of the day, I think we have to recognize that Mexico is a sovereign nation and that its leaders have the right to make decisions that we could see are not in their best interest.”
In his speech, Congressman Panetta had asked Tai directly whether the US investment that is moving from Asia to Mexico – a phenomenon known in English as “nearshoring” – was safe despite decisions and policies of President López Obrador.
“He has taken steps to weaken Mexico’s electoral body, he is banning GM corn using non-scientific or health-related reasons. He has occupied the private property of Vulcan Materials in Mexico. And he has even talked about taking steps to influence our elections.” Panetta said.
“My question to you is, what actions and guarantees can you, as the US Trade Representative, provide to my companies in my district, that their nearshoring investment in Mexico is safe and secure?”
Just the day before yesterday, all the congressmen and senators for the State of Alabama in the Capitol, both Republicans and Democrats, issued a letter to the Mexican ambassador Esteban Moctezuma claiming what they see as an illegal invasion of the Vulcan Materials facilities in Playa del Carmen.
A few weeks ago, the presidents of the US Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Foreign Relations, the Democrat Bob Menéndez and the Republican Michael McCaul, accused López Obrador of undermining democracy after the endorsement in Mexico of the so-called “Plan B” to reform the National Electoral Institute (INE).
