Mexico City, July 27 (EFE).- Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard reported this Wednesday that the government of Mexico is preparing the strategy it will present in the consultations on its disputed energy policy requested by the United States and Canada in under the trade agreement with these countries. , the T-MEC.
“We are preparing for the consultation process, we are already in consultation with the United States on the one hand, Canada on the other hand regarding different measures that the government of Mexico has taken in terms of electricity and energy. in general,” Ebrard reported. On Instagram.
“(The consultation process) is normally organized or designed for you to have a dialogue, to understand what your counterpart is proposing and to try to come to some sort of rapprochement before going to a panel,” he said. -he explains.
Ebrard said the Department of Foreign Affairs (SRE) works in conjunction with the Department of Economy (SE), which has legal powers and is the counterpart to the USTR (Office of the United States Trade Representative) and also with the Ministry of Commerce of Canada.
“We’re working as a team to clearly identify what the arguments are, respond to them, and start the dialogue that I’m talking about,” he said.
Last week, the United States and Canada called for consultations in the T-MEC on Mexico’s energy policy, which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador changed to favor state-owned companies Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
A week ago, the president, in his daily conference, minimized the consultations, considering that it is a normal procedure within the T-MEC, in force since July 2020, and denounced that they obey political interests.
This is the fourth time that the general dispute resolution mechanism of Chapter 31 of the T-MEC, in force since July 2020, has been used, according to the Mexican Ministry of Economy.
Governments have 75 days to reach an agreement during this stage and, if there is no consensus, a dispute resolution panel is formally opened.
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