Written in NATION he 06/07/2023 13:53

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai arrived in Cancun on Thursday to participate in a meeting on the Mexico-U.S.-Canada Treaty (T-MEC) amid trade disputes with the government. Mexican.

“It is an honor to welcome @AmbassadorTai (Ambassador Tai), head of @USTradeRep (the Office of the United States Trade Representative, USTR). His visit to Mexico will serve to continue to strengthen our economies through T-MEC,” Washington wrote. the ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, on his networks.

Tai will be this Thursday and Friday in Cancún, in the Mexican Caribbean, to participate in the third Free Trade Commission with the Secretary of Economy of Mexico, Raquel Buenrostro, and the Minister of International Trade and Exports of Canada, Mary Ng.

During this meeting, they will review the progress of the implementation of the T-MEC, which came into force in July 2020. Their visit also aims to “consolidate North America as a be of his people and the planet,” he added. Salazar.

But the meeting, which will be private, without access to the media and with details still unknown, will be framed by the trade disputes open within the T-MEC, in particular by the energy policies and against the transgenic corn of the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López. .Workshop.

Joe Biden’s government last month asked that of Mexico to review the alleged violation of labor rights and freedom of association at a textile factory in Aguascalientes and a mine in Zacatecas, saying it violates the T-MEC commitments.

Furthermore, López Obrador remarked two weeks ago that he would ban the import of transgenic maize into his country despite protest from the United States.

Since the start of the treaty in 2020, at least 17 trade disputes have been opened.

The United States and Canada met in July 2022 to open a series of consultations to determine whether Mexico’s energy policy, which prioritizes state-owned companies, discriminates against American and Canadian companies.

While Mexico and Canada have jointly denounced the formula used by the United States to determine whether a vehicle has enough North American-made components.

Context

Consideration of major disputes over Mexico’s GM corn and energy policies, as well as Canada’s access to dairy products, has been omitted, a senior official with the Office of the Trade Representative told the agency. US Reuters (USTR) press release.

The annual meeting is one of the T-MEC agreements, as it aims to be able to discuss matters related to the trade pact.

The challenged could go so far as to apply punitive import duties from the United States. These issues are resolved under T-MEC’s ​​dispute resolution rules. It covers topics such as U.S. complaints about Mexican policies to limit the use of GM corn imported from the U.S., and about Canada’s allocation of import quotas for dairy products. that U.S. officials say are hurting U.S. producers. There is also the issue of energy conflicts.