They will review the T-MEC on the 200th anniversary of Mexico-EU relations

Mexico and the United States will review the operation of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) at the next North American Leaders Summit, which will take place in Mexico, tentatively in December 2022.

Just in that month the 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States will be celebrated and the meeting will discuss, among other issues, the commercial controversy in energy matters that the three countries continue within the framework of the T-MEC, if for So they haven’t reached an agreement.

We have made sure that our bilateral mechanisms are as solid as possible and that we have a constant and institutionalized dialogue; that is what was achieved with the approval of the T-MEC”, commented this Saturday Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, ambassador of Mexico in the United States, when participating in the 47th National Convention of the National Council of the Maquiladora and Export Manufacturing Industry (Index). .

On July 20, 2022, the United States requested consultations with Mexico under the USMCA Dispute Settlement chapter, arguing that several Mexican energy policies violate this agreement, favor Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission, and affect the US companies operating in Mexico and to energy produced in the United States. Canada then submitted its own application.

The three nations failed to resolve the dispute through consultations within 75 days, so the complaining parties (United States and Canada) requested an extension of the period before determining whether to request the establishment of a dispute settlement panel to examine the measures in question and potentially authorize retaliatory actions.

The trilateral meeting of the T-MEC acquires importance, because even if the energy dispute settlement panel was established before, this does not eliminate the possibility that the countries can reach an agreement outside that mechanism.

“In the next two months, perhaps, the North American Leaders Summit will be held in Mexico City,” said Moctezuma Barragán.

Like Mexico, the United States wants to avoid the energy panel, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Friday.

Linked to the business sector, there is the High Level Economic Dialogue (DEAN) between Mexico and the United States and there is a Mexico-Canada dialogue. But there is no trilateral summit dialogue between the private sector and the government.

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In a panel at the Index National Convention, Sergio Gómez Lora, general director of the Washington Office of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), asked if it would make sense to create a private sector component in the Summit of Leaders.

“The dialogue we have between the private sector and governments is very important, we depend on what the private sector tells us about what works and what does not work (…) The T-MEC committees also have opportunities for dialogue with the sector private,” replied Patrick O’Reilly, economic counselor at the US Embassy in Mexico.

Moctezuma Barragán concluded that in the 200 years of official diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States, which will be fulfilled on December 12, there has been a transition from a relationship that was originally antagonistic, to one of interdependence.

roberto.morales@eleconomista.mx