At the keynote lecture Mexico and Regionalization , Judith Garza , coordinator of Cuarto de Junto, highlighted the role of the mechanism she heads in the review process of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) , which will take place in 2026.
Within the framework of the XIX Annual Convention of the Mexican Institute of Foreign Trade Executives (IMECE) , the specialist indicated that said mechanism offers technical information, and is made up of the business sector to work with the Ministry of Economy (SE) in the process of reviewing the trilateral trade agreement.
During his participation, he recalled that the SE requested to reactivate the Cuarto de Junto to prepare the preparatory work in said framework, and that it includes the integration of seven working groups; each of them will analyze specific aspects of the T-MEC, such as market access and rules of origin , and the one referring to the labor issue , among others.
He pointed out that the Cuarto de Junto has been in existence for more than 30 years and its objective is free trade agreements, so there are already previous experiences of other reviews and negotiations.
Judith Garza pointed out that in recent years, Mexico has become the main commercial partner of the United States , and added that since the war on the subject between the northern neighbor and China, our country has increased its participation with the United States, while the Asian nation has decreased it.
Meanwhile, at the analysis table Participation of the private industry in the T-MEC negotiating team (2026) , Fausto López , manager of International Treaties at Volkswagen of Mexico , recalled that the most challenging Joint Room was that of the T-MEC due to the threats from the United States to the Mexican automotive sector.
He said that what they are now seeking is to have an audit manual to avoid discrepancies and in the matter of electric vehicles they want a more flexible rule of origin. López considered that the success of the review of the T-MEC in 2026 will depend on the coordination of the Fourth Joint Committee with the government authority .
Humberto Jasso , Vice President of Foreign Trade of the National Agricultural Council (CNA) indicated that the importance of this mechanism is to “bring down” to a sector the issues that are inherent to it. In this sense, he gave as an example the structure of the Agro-Food Cuarto de Junto, which is headed by Juan Cortina Gallardo and has 30 subsectors, 50 productive chains and three allied organizations.
Ricardo Aranda, former general director of International Trade Disciplines at the SE and senior manager of government relations at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry , said that he was present at the review of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 2016-2017, and one of the aspects at that time was on the subject of labor rules, an issue that Mexico managed to fulfill with that commitment, which is why there has not been an “avalanche” of panels against our country.
In the review of the USMCA that will be carried out in 2026, it is necessary to be clear about the factors that affect each industry, he stressed and specified that it is important to have specific links so that they can make proposals on the issues that will be reviewed.
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