At her Wednesday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about the USMCA free trade pact, the long-standing proposal to build a new cruise ship pier on the island of Cozumel and her plans for Mother’s Day this Saturday.
Here is a recap of the president’s May 7 mañanera.
Sheinbaum: No sign that the USMCA is going to ‘disappear’
A reporter asked Sheinbaum to comment on the remarks United States President Donald Trump made about the USMCA free trade pact on Tuesday during an appearance before reporters with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Asked whether the USMCA is “dead,” Trump — who has recently imposed a range of tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada — responded:
“No, it was actually very effective and it’s still very effective, but people have to follow it, you know that’s been a problem, people haven’t followed it. … As you know it terminates fairly shortly, it gets renegotiated very shortly, but I thought it was a very positive step from NAFTA. NAFTA was the worst trade deal in the history of our country, probably in the history of the world, and this was a transitional deal and we’ll see what happens. … We’re going to be starting to possibly renegotiate that if it’s even necessary, I don’t know that it’s necessary anymore.”
Sheinbaum and Trump agree to work on trade balance in Thursday phone call
Although Trump said that the USMCA “terminates fairly shortly” — it is in fact scheduled for review in 2026 — Sheinbaum told reporters that there is no “sign” that the three-way trade pact is going to “disappear.”
She highlighted that Mexican goods that comply with the USMCA don’t currently face tariffs when shipped to the United States “with the exception of … vehicles, steel and aluminum.”
“… We continue working within the USMCA, so much so that we were favored, along with Canada, insofar as the majority of products don’t have tariffs, because of the USMCA,” Sheinbaum said.
That was a reference to the United States’ decision to not impose so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on goods from Mexico, and to exempt Mexican auto parts from duties that apply to auto parts from other countries.
Mexico is currently attempting to negotiate exemptions from the steel, aluminum and vehicle tariffs as well.
Sheinbaum noted that Trump’s opinion is that the USMCA is much better than NAFTA, and declared that she agreed with him.
The USMCA superseded NAFTA in 2020 during Trump’s first term as president. Under the USMCA, Mexico has become the world’s largest exporter to the United States, sending goods worth more than US $131 billion to its northern neighbor in the first quarter of 2025.
Will a 4th cruise ship pier be built on Cozumel?
A reporter asked the president about opposition to the construction of a fourth cruise ship pier on the Caribbean island of Cozumel, located off the coast of Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo.
The plan to build a fourth pier — first announced in 2020 — has been criticized by residents and environmental groups for years, due to the damage they claim it will cause to coral reefs located in the Caribbean Sea near Cozumel.
Shienbaum said that approval for the proposed project has not been granted.
“It’s a plan, but every plan has to have its environmental impact statement. There is not yet any formal authorization, it’s [just] a plan,” she said.
The pier is slated to be built by the company Muelles del Caribe, which has previously claimed that it had all the necessary permits for the construction of the project.
Opposition to the plan has recently intensified, and a protest march against it is scheduled to take place on Cozumel this Friday, according to the La Jornada newspaper.
The news website Publimetro reported on Wednesday that the Cozumel municipal government “has remained silent” amid “this new wave of rejection, while federal opposition lawmakers have requested that the federal government stop any attempt to reactivate the project without a broad prior discussion.”
Sheinbaum to host her mom at the National Palace for Mother’s Day
Sheinbaum noted that she will visit Acapulco this Friday and go to the state of Morelos — located immediately south of Mexico City — on Saturday. She said that the trip to Morelos will be brief as she is going to invite her mother, Annie Pardo, to have a meal at the National Palace for Mother’s Day on Saturday.
Sheinbaum has lived at the National Palace with her husband since late last year.
Pardo, a biologist who had a long career at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said in a recent interview with the newspaper Milenio that she is “super proud” of her daughter — Mexico’s first female president — but concerned that “she doesn’t sleep much because she’s very hard-working.”
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
