The controversies within the T-MEC highlight the work that the Secretary of Economy will have to do, under the command of Raquel Buenrostro and his entire team.

The T-MEC was signed by this government under the command of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but it has not finished going through various situations in its application, problems that have been testing the strength of the members of this organization for more than a year. addiction.

There is no doubt that the work that Ildefonso Guajardo and Tatiana Clouthier did at the time, with the support of Undersecretary Luz María de la Mora, led to firm measures. Regarding the application of the trade agreement with the United States and Canada.

However, the complexity is resurfacing, and calling into question Mexico’s ability to pull through, as experience with trade laws and agreements has waned within the Ministry of Economy, giving a hazy and new account of the team that worked on the outstanding issues.

It is a reality that the rules of origin of the automotive sector, and for which the authorities of the United States, Canada and Mexico let use the additional time before reaching the dispute settlement panel, have went well and the credit goes to the directive of the Secretary for the Economy led by Tatiana Clouthier.

So much so that it has assured Mexico of compliance with what is established in the TMEC, that is to say that the permanence of the supply chains of the automotive sector in Mexico is guaranteed and the legal certainty of the commercial conditions for new investments, and those already in place.

The big “but” is who will lead the energy and climate change negotiations, where Mexico’s politics seem to be different.

And it is that, although it is true, the government of Joe Biden decided at the end of February not to respect the provisions of the T-MEC, Mexico and Canada could resort to fines and other types of conditions to counter the effects that could lead to the United States not wanting to respect the question of the rule of origin in the automotive sector.

But, similarly, Canada and the United States could do the same with the issue of energy and climate change, and the issue is bigger. It should not be forgotten that the energy issue is part of the evolution of many sectors, and the harm for Mexico would be more than fatal.

Theme that does not seem to move and time is running out. The Ministry of Economy will now have to demonstrate what it is made of, the importance that this dependence has had is more than important, not only for Mexico internally, but to demonstrate the strength, the seriousness and the level of trade it has with Mexico.

It will be that we can move forward, since the currency is in the air, and there are those who already assure that it will fall on the side of the controversy panels against Mexico, from which it would simply not come out well. Of course, we know that not joining a trade agreement like the T-MEC has serious consequences. I hope they will act and have the level to do so, and above all, to enforce what has been signed in the T-MEC; signed, by the way, by this federal government.

Because mistakes like the 50% tariff on corn send negative signals. This is clearly a tariff that violates the 14 trade agreements that Mexico has with different countries, where the agreement was not to impose tariffs on food.