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The new president and her top Cabinet members are meeting with 60 business leaders attending a summit to discuss the USMCA trade accord and mend the relationship with the private sector.
The large capital holders of Mexico and the United States are eagerly awaiting their first meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum. The Mexican president and her Cabinet will be a key part of the 14th U.S.-Mexico CEO Dialogue, a business summit bringing together corporate leaders that is taking place at the Club de Banqueros venue in Mexico City. The heads of Mexico’s main companies, including América Móvil, Amazon in Mexico, Tenaris Tamsa and Mexico Pacific are due to meet with the president on Tuesday to address some of the issues that concern them the most: investment incentives, the renegotiation of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), the future of energy policy, and projects around climate change, among others.
In her morning press conference on Monday, the president said there will be announcements of binational investment and a drive towards greater association between Mexico and the United States, under the protection of the trade agreement. “I know, through the Secretary of Economy and directly, that many companies want to continue investing in our country. Mexico had record exports, it is the main trade partner of the United States, and this will continue to be so in our country. What we want is to create the conditions for private investment and, at the same time, regulate it,” she said.
Hours later, on Monday night, the top brass of her Cabinet, headed by Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente and Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, hosted a select dinner with top executives from Mexico and the United States. The meeting was at Soumaya Museum, owned by the Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim. Surrounded by Roman and Greek sculptures, the business leaders received a conciliatory message from Ebrard, who emphasized that they are a priority sector for this administration, and that is why the president is having a direct meeting with them just 15 days after taking office.
“Tomorrow we will have significant messages about what your vision is on energy, on the ongoing judicial reform, how the revision of the free trade agreement with the United States should be. In short, the relationship with the United States and the community of interests with the business community are a high priority for the government led by President Claudia Sheinbaum,” Ebrard stressed before a demanding audience that included names such as Carlos Slim Domit, president of América Móvil, or Blanca Treviño, general director of Softek in Mexico.
This strategic summit with the private sector is taking place in the midst of Mexico’s economic slowdown, with a decline in consumption and investment, two indicators that have dragged down the growth forecasts of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), from 2.4% at the beginning of the year to 1.5%. In addition, the incoming government is carrying the heavy burden of the most pronounced fiscal deficit in the last 36 years, at 5.9% of GDP.
Against this backdrop, the president of Mexico will seek to build bridges with the private sector and mend the relationship, somewhat damaged during the previous six-year term under Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Although Sheinbaum has spoken out against neoliberalism, she also defended investment in her first message in the capital’s main square. Within her 100-point message, on October 1, she welcomed private innovation, good salaries and environmental protection.
The forecasts for the Mexican economy for the second half of 2024 and for next year are still modest. The Bank of Mexico predicts that GDP in 2025 could grow by 1.2%, however, many analysts place this growth below 1%, due to the caution exercised by companies during the first year of any new government. Therefore, the first direct message to the private sector will play a crucial role in publicizing its project is to promote investment and business in the country. For now, it has two strong cards for dialogue with the business community. On the one hand, Ebrard himself, in the Ministry of Economy, and on the other, the high-profile businesswoman Altagracia Gómez, president of Grupo Minsa, and who in this six-year term will coordinate the Business Council.
In the run-up to the elections in the United States — Mexico’s main trading partner — this summit aims to be the first bridge for investment and the development of new projects between the two countries. In addition, it will seek to solve other pressing issues on the agenda, such as a more agile flow of goods across the border and the implementation of digitalization projects.
In the midst of uncertainty over Mexico’s judicial reform, the first day of work was marked by a protest outside the Association of Banks of Mexico. The long road to implementation of the new selection process for judges and magistrates has raised the eyebrows of more than one investor, who have decided to postpone their projects until they are certain about what will happen with this reform and with others that are in the pipeline, such as the elimination of independent agencies.
Pedro Tello, an expert in the industrial sector, said that this first meeting will serve to review issues of common interest between Mexico and the United States, within the framework of the USMCA. “Beyond the investment announcements, which will surely occur, this government must focus on other lines of work; for example, there is a great deal of work to be done to rebuild trust between U.S. business leaders and their counterparts in Mexico; we have issues to resolve in the agro-industrial area regarding transgenic corn, in the area of electricity and in the automotive sector.”