Mexico’s trade relationships were an important focus of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s final press conference of the week.
Sheinbaum responded to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s latest remarks about the future of the USMCA free trade pact, and denied claims that Mexico is shipping Chinese products to the United States.
Sheinbaum: Trudeau ‘knows our intention is for the agreement to continue’
Sheinbaum was asked to respond to the remarks about the USMCA that the Canadian prime minister made during a press conference on Thursday.
Trudeau said that the USMCA is an “absolutely outstanding trade deal” that “has been incredibly successful for the Canadian economy, for the U.S. economy and for the Mexican economy.”
“This is something that we would like to see continue, that is my first choice,” he said.
However, Trudeau noted that “there have been real and genuine concerns raised about Chinese investment into Mexico that I brought up directly with the Mexican president.”
“… We’re leaving all doors open because my job is and always will be to stand up for Canadian workers, to stand up for the Canadian economy, to stand up for Canadian interests. That’s what guided us through President Trump’s first term and that’s what will guide us through this second term,” he said.
“… We will fight for Canadians, we will secure Canadian jobs and secure Canadian growth long into the future. Ideally we do that as a united North American market but pending decisions and choices that Mexico has made we may have to look at other options. But let me just say it again, my ideal situation is we continue to work well together,” Trudeau said.
On Friday morning, Sheinbaum reiterated her view that the USMCA is “very good” for Mexico, Canada and the United States.
“I’ve said it since I came into government. In North America this agreement allows us to complement each each, allows our economies to grow. … I spoke about this with the prime minister of Canada,” she said, referring to her meeting with Trudeau on Monday during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
“We have to look at what he was referring to with ‘the decisions of Mexico,’ but he knows that our intention is for the agreement to continue,” Sheinbaum said.
The president said last week that a proposal from Ontario Premier Doug Ford to terminate the USMCA “has no future.”
Sheinbaum responds to claims that Mexico is sending Chinese goods to the US
“This idea that Chinese products are entering Mexico to be taken to the United States is not correct,” Sheinbaum said.
“I demonstrated that the day the Mexican and United States business people were here, on Oct. 15,” she said.
Sheinbaum said that her government will also “clearly demonstrate” to both the United States and Canada in future meetings that accusations that Mexico is a transshipment hub for Chinese goods is “false.”
Earlier this year, the United States became particularly concerned about an increase in steel and aluminum exports from Mexico, and effectively accused Mexican of sending Chinese metal north.
The incoming U.S. president, Donald Trump, said in October that he would “seek strong new protections against transshipment, so that China and other countries cannot smuggle their products and auto parts into the United States tax free through Mexico to the detriment of our workers and our supply chains.”
On Friday, Sheinbaum said that vehicles made in Mexico have, on average, “only 7% content” from China, whereas “in the United States it’s 9%.”
She also highlighted that the United States imports “a lot” of goods from China.
In addition, Sheinbaum noted that the federal government is developing a plan to substitute Mexico’s imports from China with products made in Mexico.
The objective throughout her six-year term, the president said, is to continually reduce reliance on Chinese exports.
