First meeting of Mexico, the United States and Canada to evaluate the T-MEC

The first meeting of trade officials from Mexico, the United States and Canada to assess the implementation of the T-MEC finally took place. The online meeting was chaired by the Secretary of Economy, Tatiana Clouthier, together with Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative, and the participation of Mary Ng, Canada's Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade.

"This meeting is of particular importance as it is the first trilateral meeting of trade ministers since the entry into force of the T-MEC," said Tatiana Clouthier in a statement published by El Financiero.

The talks, which ended on Tuesday 17 May, were aimed at reviewing the progress of the operation of the Free Trade Commission of the Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC), as well as "agreeing on the construction of an inclusive trade policy for North America that will allow us to overcome the challenges we face and move, together, towards an inclusive economic recovery for the three countries", according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Economy. 

The meeting focused on rules for the automotive industry, access to border trucking services and ongoing investigations into certain Mexican agricultural products. "The Mexican delegation received concerns from the Americans on agricultural and investment issues," the government acknowledged in a statement after the first virtual meeting, according to La Voz newspaper.

Canada's Minister of International Trade, Mary Ng, asked the Mexican government to act firmly and clearly in its energy policy, representing the concerns of Canadian investors in the mining sector. She stressed the need for a review of these points "in order to provide long-term economic security for workers and the industry", according to El Sol de México.

Tai, the US trade representative, backed the need for an energy policy that respects US investments and is consistent with efforts to combat climate change and improve trade. "I discussed the historically important relationship between the United States and Mexico, and how to strengthen relations with our neighbours, especially when it comes to environmental regulations and Mexico's historic labour reforms," he said on his main Twitter account.

Mexico has argued from the outset that the free trade agreement, T-MEC, will allow the Mexican economy to recover through new investments and increased exports in the country.

Clouthier, for her part, highlighted the historic fact that three women are at the head of regional integration and reiterated "Mexico's interest in building a competitive, inclusive and sustainable North America through an open and permanent dialogue". 

However, the government is still reluctant to allow private companies to participate in the energy sector, which runs counter to the agreement with the US and Canada. These contradictions in the assessment of the agreement generate a certain amount of discontent among different sectors that see a possibility of expansion thanks to the T-MEC, but are held back by the Mexican government.

Mexico has been part of the trade bloc with the United States for 25 years, in what was initially called NAFTA, thanks to which it has gained an advantage over other competing economies, says Enrique Perret, director of the research-based US Mexico Foundation, in statements reported in the newspaper El País. He also confirms Mexico's advantageous position that "it has a certain infrastructure, thousands of exporting companies. Over two decades, the United States has invested almost 250 billion dollars in companies in Mexico, and there is already a large installed capacity".

The meeting comes at a convulsive moment, just after Mexico received the first T-MEC labour complaint from US unions who denounced an automobile plant in Tamaulipas and, for its part, the Mexican Embassy in Washington sent a letter to the Department of Labour last Wednesday denouncing "the lack of enforcement of labour laws" in the agricultural industry in the United States, explains the newspaper La Voz.

Washington asked Mexico to look into alleged labour rights violations at a General Motors factory in Guanajuato. This is the first use of the Rapid Response Labour Mechanism in the T-MEC, which allows members of the agreement to act on labour rights issues in specific factories. "This use of the Rapid Response Mechanism demonstrates that we will act when workers in certain facilities are denied their rights under the laws necessary to comply with Mexico's labour obligations," Tai said, according to El Sol de Mexico.

The meeting will continue over the next few hours and will allow new issues to be brought to light and the most relevant conflicts in the agreement to be resolved through dialogue between the authorities of the three North American countries. 

Minister Tatiana Clouthier confirmed the importance of this first T-MEC meeting: "In this new era of North American integration that begins with the TMEC, open dialogue and effective communication with our counterparts in the United States and Canada will be one of the key elements to ensure that we achieve the results we all expect from this agreement". 

Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra