Mexico plans to close this year the agreement with the EU to produce vaccines and medicines

Mexico, the fifth country in the world with the most deaths due to pandemic of the coronavirus, hopes to close a contract with the European Commission before the end of the year for large pharmaceutical companies from the old continent to produce vaccines and medicines in the Latin American country, an official told Reuters.

The idea explained Iker JimenezCEO of Global Economic Momentum at the Secretary of Foreign Relationsis to turn the country into the logistics center of Latin America and the Caribbean -the region that accumulated the most deaths per capita from Covid-19-, in the face of an eventual next pandemic.

“We are finishing closing the contract with the European Commission so that we can officially launch the project this year, November or December at the latest,” Jiménez said in an interview with Reuters on Monday afternoon.

We don’t want the next pandemic, which could be tomorrow or 100 years from now, to catch us with our fingers in the door again,” he added.

The official, in charge of attracting investment and international promotion of Mexico, explained that the agreement will focus on the production and packaging of vaccines and medicines.

Jiménez said it was forbidden to reveal the names of the firms, but Europe is the headquarters of many of the most important pharmaceutical companies, such as the British AstraZenecathe german Bayerthe Belgian Janssen -of Johnson & Johnson-, Merck, the Swiss Novartis y Rochethe French Sanofiamong other.

In the middle of the year, the head of the EC, the German Ursula von der Leyen, assured that the block wants to promote the production of vaccines and medicines in Latin America by investing more in the region and sharing technologies and regulatory practices.

Electric cars step on the accelerator

Jiménez’s office is also in charge of promoting the production and use of electric vehicles in Mexico, the main car manufacturer in Latin America and one of the largest in the world.

As part of this strategy, at the beginning of the year the United States-Mexico Working Group for the Electrification of Transportation, an initiative that has the participation of officials from both countries and the University of California. Jiménez said that next year Canada could join.

Mexico intends that by 2030, 50% of the cars sold in the country will be electric and 90% by 2050. Currently, the percentage is close to 5 percent.

Jiménez is confident that the goal will be achieved, as long as the needs are identified and the functions between the State and the private company are delimited for the development of recharging infrastructure, consumer incentives for the adoption of electric vehicles and non-fiscal stimuli.

Last week, with an investment of about 65 million dollars, the Canadian BRP announced the construction in the state of Querétaro of its plant to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles and to produce electric motorcycles.

The announcement is the first of its kind in the country and Jiménez assured that from next year there will be more, in addition to companies that will invest billions of dollars in adapting their plants in Mexico to produce electric vehicles.

The official assured that his team has spoken with all the assemblers and auto parts firms present in Mexico, such as BMW, Ford, GM, Come on, Nissan, Stellar, Toyota, among other. He has also invited electric car producers, such as Tesla, to settle in the country.

On the other hand, Jiménez said that Foreign Ministry officials met last month with executives from Uber to apply a plan similar to the one launched in the United States and Europe, through which they support their drivers to migrate their vehicles to zero emissions.