Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard attended President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Thursday morning press conference and responded to questions on a range of topics including investment in Mexico and the USMCA review.
Sheinbaum also spoke about public and private investment in Mexico within the context of Plan México, the government’s ambitious economic initiative that was launched a year ago this week.
Ebrard: US $293 billion in Mexico’s investment ‘portfolio’
After executives from chicken producer Pilgrim’s Pride announced an investment of US $1.3 billion in Mexico over the next five years, Ebrard said that the nation now has an “investment portfolio” of $293 billion.
“This $1.3 billion [from Pilgrim’s Pride] is in that portfolio, along with the $1 billion investment that General Motors announced yesterday,” he said.
“So this week we only have $2.3 billion [in investment announcements],” Ebrard said, apparently speaking tongue in cheek.
“At the national level, in the portfolio we have $293 billion,” he reiterated.
The economy minister was presumably referring to investment commitments from both Mexican and foreign companies as well as projects that are currently in progress. There is no guarantee that all of the announced investments will come to fruition.
Automakers Tesla and BYD are among the companies that haven’t followed through on investment plans they announced.
Ebrard: USMCA negotiations are going well
Asked about negotiations related to the review of the USMCA free trade pact, Ebrard said he believed that good progress has been made “on all the points that concern each of the parties,” namely Mexico, the United States and Canada.
“And we also have a clear idea already of the points that will have, let’s say, the greatest focus for each country, the greatest importance, the highest priority [in the formal review]” he said.
Ebrard said that Mexico’s “first strategic objective” is to maintain the USMCA, which wouldn’t expire until 2036 even if the three parties failed to reach an agreement to renew it.
In late September, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer accused Mexico of failing to comply with the USMCA, and declared that it didn’t “make a lot of sense to talk about extending” the agreement as things stood.
NEW: Trump’s point man on trade floats separate deals with Canada and Mexico.
Jamieson Greer laid out the case for bilateral agreements, a move that would end more than 30 years of a unified free-trade deal in North America. #CUSMA #USMCA https://t.co/XNjUJCMxGe
— Mike Crawley (@MikeCrawleyCBC) December 10, 2025
“There are areas where they’re supposed to be complying with the USMCA, where they’re not. This could be energy, telecommunications services, agricultural, all kinds of things,” Greer said without going into specifics.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that the USMCA provides “no real advantage” to the United States and is “irrelevant” to him, but Sheinbaum remains confident that the trade pact will endure.
Government to present 1-year review of Plan México soon
Sheinbaum told reporters that her government will present an evaluation of Plan México in 2025 in around two weeks. She said that officials will also speak about the execution of the plan in 2026.
“We’ll probably do an event, either at the Museum of Anthropology or some other space, to which we’ll invite the business sector, workers and various [other] sectors of Mexican society,” Sheinbaum said.
“… The Mexican economy is doing well,” she added, even though economic growth significantly slowed last year.
An analysis by the think tank México ¿cómo vamos? of the progress made toward achieving six of the 13 Plan México goals over the past year indicated that the execution of the plan is not going as well as might have been hoped.
Sheinbaum: ‘I’m very excited because there will be more investment in infrastructure’
Later in her mañanera, Sheinbaum spoke in broad terms about new infrastructure projects that will be carried out in Mexico.
“I’m very excited because there will be more investment in infrastructure, in energy, in oil, in natural gas, in electricity,” she said.
“There will be more investment in renewable sources of energy, in highways, … in water,” said Sheinbaum, who also provided a guarantee that her government will complete all the rail projects it is currently building.
She said that the new infrastructure projects will be undertaken with public investment, with private investment and in public-private partnerships in some cases.
“There are a lot of investments that we are certain are coming to Mexico starting this year. That is the case with Pilgrim’s and other investments in the portfolio held by the Economy Ministry,” Sheinbaum said.
“… So, it’s a good year for Mexico. And Plan Mexico will continue to strengthen,” she said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
