Next Thursday will be the first virtual meeting between the chief of staff of the United States Trade Representation (USTR for its acronym in English), Katherine Tai, and Mexico’s Secretary of Economy, Rachelwith whom the private sector hopes that the dialogue between the two countries will be reactivated, at a time when the two parties are negotiating the question of the rules of origin for cars and Mexican energy policy.

Regarding the meeting that will take place next Thursday, November 3, between Tai and Buenrostro -who took office on October 7-, the Director General of the Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment, Science and Technology ( Comce), Fernando Ruiz Huarte, says they are “waiting reactivate dialogue of the new administration”, but not only with the United States, but also with Canada.

Read also: They demand the resignation of T-MEC officials from the Ministry of Economy

A few days after learning that in addition to the departure of the Under-Secretary for Foreign Trade, Luz María de la Mora, the directors of the said Under-Secretary have also left their posts, who were in charge of certain aspects of the negotiations related to the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC)Ruiz Huarte added that the whole team of the unit has not left, that is to say that other officials have remained and that others will arrive to help in the process of negotiation.

“We have confidence in the new authorities and that we will have a good team that will face the negotiations that we have in development and those that will come soon,” he explained.

Indeed, within the framework of the T-MEC, the preliminary ruling on the rules of origin of automobiles and auto parts is currently awaited, in addition to the fact that the American and Canadian governments are in the phase of dialogue or consultation against the Mexico, on the problem of Mexican energy policy and in environmental issues related to the care of vaquita porpoise and totoaba fish.

Read also: Mexico favors negotiation with T-MEC partners for energy policy: Buenrostro

See how extension negotiations are progressing

However, he pointed out that the fact that the negotiations have been extended shows that there is progress, because when the parties do not see that something concrete can be achieved, they can create a panel.

“When you are in a negotiation and you see that there is no progress, you stop the negotiation, because you see that you will not go anywhere, then you stop”, even if there is no didn’t rule out that “if it doesn’t work out to a happy conclusion, we’ll come to a panel”.

Ruiz Huarte said that if a panel is chosen on the energy issue, its resolution will take at least a yearso “we would see the sanctions until 2024 if they existed, I hope not”.

“If the panel shows that we are violating the T-MEC (on energy policy), retaliation will come,” he told a news conference.

He added that if there was a panel and if tariffs were established against Mexico, one would think that one of the products produced in Mexican territory that could be subject to a tariff would be pickup trucks, which are levied by the United States with a 20% tariff rate for countries that do not have a trade agreement with them.

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