:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elfinanciero/YV4QYJXSI5GC7E64VQ2JDBNIXY.jpg "US ‘concerned’ about AMLO’s energy policy – El Financiero")
The President Joe Biden’s Trade Chief said this Friday, October 28 that he hopes to have his first meeting with Mexico’s new economic secretary, Rachel“very soon”, and that US concerns about the country’s energy policy are broader than the impact on individual companies.
United States continues consultations with Mexico which began in August, Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Washington bureau on Friday. On the Mexican side, the talks will now be led by Raquel Buenrostro, the former director of the SAT whom President Andrés Manuel López Obrador appointed to his new position in early October.
So far the Mexican government focused on settling individual cases with US and Canadian companies in an attempt to defuse the dispute.
But Tai wouldn’t rule out calling for a panel to be formed to resolve the dispute, which he said earlier this year puts more than $10 billion in US investments for the arbitrary treatment of companies, especially in renewable energy.
“When you’re the applicant, you’re in the driver’s seat,” Tai said. The United States will remain in the talks “as long as these consultations are meaningful,” he said.
The Politics of Lopez Obrador favors the state-owned company Petróleos Mexicanos and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). While the United States says it violates the USMCA trade agreement, which came into effect in 2020, to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which had been in force for two decades. Canada has made a similar request for talks on Mexico’s energy policy.
The unfair treatment is about “more than the impact on individual businesses”, Tai added.
The request for arbitration was opened as an option for the United States after the mandatory period of 75 days for T-MEC discussions It will expire at the beginning of this month. But the United States and Mexico have agreed to extend the negotiations beyond that initial deadline, as the agreement allows.
López Obrador denies that his policy violates the pact and says the United States must respect Mexico’s sovereignty.
If a panel rules against Mexico, it may have to pay customs duties for up to $30 billion in exportsformer officials who brokered the deal when the United States and Canada first filed the lawsuit in July told Bloomberg News.
Many analysts have seen Choosing the right face by López Obrador as hardening of his position to commercial issues. As head of the tax office, she raised billions of dollars through a crackdown on big companies owned by some of Mexico’s wealthiest businessmen, accusing them of abusing loopholes.
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