This weekend senior officials of the Government of Mexico confirmed that the country will work to seek less trade dependence on China .
Rogelio Ramírez de la O, current Secretary of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) , indicated that the region of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) shows a high dependence on Chinese imports.
In this case, the United States depends on China for 16.5% of its imports, Canada for 13.5% and Mexico for 19.6% , according to data shared by the head of the Mexican Treasury, during the event Economic balance on industrial development and T -MEC , held in San Luis Potosí, before the President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the virtual president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Right there, Ramírez de la O, who will have six-year continuity during the Sheinbaum government, indicated that Mexico is considering making a change in the investment policy and attention to foreign investment, through the so-called Mexico Plan, in the sense to encourage greater production in the North American region to meet consumer demand.
The Secretary of the Treasury stated that “ we are depending too much on basic products from China for our homes.”
Currently, the value of Chinese exports to Mexico is around 119 billion dollars (million dollars) per year , while Mexican exports to China are barely around 11 billion dollars, which represents a large trade deficit for Mexico, according to with official data.
Ramírez de la O indicated that today the advantages of producing in China have already disappeared, maritime freight rates from Asia to North America “have exploded upwards” and currently there is a new chapter of containers that are stuck in the supply chain, containing products that the country needs and does not produce, such as semiconductors.
“If we produce more in Mexico, this production requires an increase in employment of 520 thousand more people for our country and 600 thousand more people in the United States. We have this incentive to produce more and have greater value and higher wages in this region of North America,” said the Secretary of the Treasury, quoted in a press release from the federal agency.
At the beginning of July, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, and Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed on a series of measures to confront the “unfair import” of steel and aluminum from countries that seek to triangulate these products in Mexico to reach the United States. avoiding tariffs, a measure aimed mainly at retaining imports from China.
The member countries of the T-MEC are preparing for a review in 2026 of the region’s trade agreement , where it is expected that there will be greater surveillance of imports and an incentive for companies located in other regions of the world to migrate their centers of production to North America.
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