Energy issue will not be addressed in public

Mexico City. The expectations of the visit of any president of the United States to Mexico are always high. Above all, when the conjectures about the relationship with the current Mexican president outweigh the hard and real information about their interactions.

The relationship between Biden and AMLO is no exception. Or what to say about the relationship between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and AMLO.

This Tuesday the three leaders will meet and, as a preamble and final meeting, AMLO will meet with President Biden on Monday and with Trudeau on Wednesday, respectively.

At the meeting of the three North American leaders “we will hear a public message of unity, with a focus on nearshoring, competitiveness, investment and collaboration,” says Duncan Wood, vice president of Strategy at the Wilson Center.

One of the issues that worries Biden and Trudeau is the non-compliance with the T-MEC by the Government of Mexico in energy matters, for this reason their governments are in the consultation phase with the AMLO team. The US government “doesn’t want to talk about energy in public,” says Duncan Wood.

Last week and in an interview with Reuters, Justin Trudeau made it clear that both Biden and he will seek to convince President AMLO to redirect his energy reforms that contravene the T-MEC in terms of competition in the energy sector.

Duncan Wood recalls that, indeed, there are “tensions” with Trudeau on this issue. The Canadian “is going to put pressure on AMLO on this issue of Canadian investors.”

Aindriu Colgan, director of fiscal and trade policy at the American Petroleum Institute, whose members include ExxonMobil and Chevron, told Reuters it was time to call a dispute panel because “Mexico is flagrantly violating USMCA.”

Another of the major issues that they will address, and which by the way worries the President of the United States, is migration. “The Biden government wants to celebrate cooperation on migration and climate change,” says Duncan Wood.

Visit to El Paso

Republicans have continually used the border issue as a club against Biden, blaming him for not taking stronger action.

Joe Biden visited the US-Mexico border on Sunday for the first time since taking office nearly two years ago. He did it in El Paso, Texas.

“It’s a problem that’s not going to go away, and he has to mitigate it or take it off the table for the next election,” a senior Democrat told Reuters. “Biden has to address the issue instead of letting the opponents dominate the narrative.”

“They will do everything possible to make it look like a happy meeting,” said Andrés Rozental, a former foreign affairs undersecretary. “As long as AMLO keeps migrants out of the border area, Biden will be happy.”

geopolitica@eleconomista.mx