Experts ‘applaud’ the success of the treaty – El Financiero

Experts and the private sector agree that on its second anniversary, the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) is a success, since it has fulfilled the purpose of increasing the commercial relationship in the North American region.

For Claus von Wobeser, president of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Mexico, there have been two “very good” years in foreign trade thanks to the entry into force of the trade agreement on July 1, 2020, and the prospects are still very favorable due to the attractiveness of the country for the relocation of supply chains.

“There is a lot of interest from companies to come to Mexico because of the closeness we have with the United States, especially many investments from companies from Asia. And while the numbers are good, they could be even more so in the years to come,” he noted.

When reviewing the numbers on trade and investment, the figures support the statements, since last year Mexico and the United States traded close to 620 billion dollars and this year as of April there were already 250 billion dollars, according to with the US Census Bureau.

“It is possible that we are heading for a historic year in trade between Mexico and the United States, and there is no doubt that the T-MEC is a factor for that,” said Juan Carlos Baker, former T-MEC negotiator, CEO and founding partner of Ansley Consultants.

The expert believes that the treaty has worked as expected, since it sought to instill certainty in North America for economic operators, so that investment could arrive and avoid unilateral decisions, mainly from the United States.

“The fact that the USMCA was negotiated and put into force is a huge achievement, especially when we consider the things that have happened since, this turn to protectionism and the consequences of trade wars. The T-MEC has a lot of value for the country,” said Baker.

Another way of seeing the success of the treaty is in terms of the support it has, according to Baker, since the last NAFTA was already very worn out, it already lacked support in Mexico as well as in the United States and the USMCA, on the contrary, has been supported by all the political forces in both countries, so that gives a lot of value to the agreement.

IP will attract investment

Two years away from the T-MEC, the Mexican and US private sector are preparing initiatives in search of finding areas of opportunity and strengthening the attraction of direct investment and promoting technologies, said José Abugaber, president of Concamin.

“The new initiatives at the door regarding the T-MEC are the search to attract direct investment, the promotion of technologies that improve environmental conditions and health; strengthen the shared border between Mexico and the United States through improvements to land and maritime infrastructure and the expansion of facilitation programs in agriculture, digital trade, border trade and the reasonable use of energy. That is why we need to continue working hand in hand with the nations that make up the T-MEC to further strengthen the interests of our industry, ”explained the leader of the industrialists in his social networks.

The commercial integration of Mexico with its partners in the North American trade agreement is a great opportunity that must be seized and that depends on actions to promote prosperity between nations.

“One of the pillars of the well-being and prosperity of Mexicans is in the participation in the economic region of North America, embodied in the T-MEC that this coming July 1, we celebrate its second anniversary”, published the leader of the industrial.

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