Mexico will not yield in the dispute raised by United States and Canada Against its energy policy, within the framework of the North American trade agreement T-MEC, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador warned this Friday.

“We are going to give in because it is a matter of principle, it has to do with our sovereignty,” assured the president during his usual press conference.

López Obrador insisted that “there is no violation” of T-MEC, the agreement that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on July 1, 2020, in force for almost 25 years.

“May the Mexican people have peace of mind that we are not breaking any commitments,” he stressed.

The United States on Wednesday called for consultations to resolve disputes over the Mexican government’s energy policy, a first step in a process that could lead to trade retaliation.

Mexico has 10 days to notify whether or not it will review the requirement, according to the Ministry of Economy, which coordinates state defense.

Canada joined the US request, before which this ministry announced that “it will seek to maintain a coordinated process” with the two partners to “discuss the scope” of their requests.

López Obrador is fighting a tough battle to restore state control over energy production, through reforms of the laws that regulate the sector.

But Washington believes that this policy benefits the public electricity company CFE and the state-owned company Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) to the detriment of American companies and prevents the development of clean energies, unlike the T-MEC.

The Mexican president read this Friday chapter 8 of the treaty, which establishes according to him as “inalienable” the right of the Mexican State on its hydrocarbons.

The changes to the legislation have met with strong rejection among governments and businesses in the United States, Canada (its T-MEC partners) and Spain, three of the countries with the biggest investments in the sector, with Italy and Japan. .

Foreign and private participation is limited to the electricity generation phase, while transmission and distribution is a state monopoly.

The mexican government he failed in his attempt to amend the Constitution to restore state control over the entire production chain, but he obtained some changes in the regulatory laws that strengthen his role in the generation.