La Jornada: Complex talks with the US on trade are planned: Ebrard

The Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, confirmed yesterday that the talks with the United States, within the framework of the review of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC), will start tomorrow, with an agenda that will extend until the 29th of this month, when the first round of meetings in Mexican territory will conclude.

“We have complex and difficult conversations. I am not going to hide that,” acknowledged the head of Economy during the presentation of foreign direct investment data for the first quarter of 2026, where he was questioned about the details of the meeting with the United States trade ambassador, Jamieson Greer.

Ebrard specified that after this first round of meetings, the Mexican delegation must travel to Washington for a second meeting, the dates of which have yet to be defined.

Our country’s position has a central argument: Mexico and the United States need to compete as a region against other economies in the world, particularly in sectors where both countries have a high dependence on external suppliers.

The secretary mentioned, for example, the pharmaceutical sector, in which both countries import more than 80 percent of the active ingredients – or APIs – required by their industries. Given this, he proposed that a part of that production be transferred to both countries, which would represent billions of dollars in investment and reduction of strategic dependencies.

Another of the axes of the Mexican position has to do with the coherence of the rules of origin. Ebrard questioned that the Mexican automotive industry must comply with strict rules of origin while other countries exporting to the United States are not subject to the same conditions, thereby making competition from US companies themselves more expensive.

In that sense, he indicated that if the Trump administration is reorganizing the trade system based on tariffs plus rules of origin, Mexico seeks to obtain the best possible conditions from the integration of both economies.

The official was emphatic that Mexico is in no hurry, but it cannot let time pass either. “Failure to move forward could generate a lot of uncertainty,” he warned, which is why the Mexican proposal was to establish formal talks before July 1, with the aim of each country clearly exposing its vision before that date.

The official anticipated that the negotiations will not have a quick closure, given that the T-MEC regulates topics as varied as digital trade, intellectual property, labor and environmental, financial and customs provisions, in addition to tariffs.

Regarding specific issues, he mentioned that Mexico opposes tariffs in the automotive industry, that the tax on steel has no basis, and that the compensatory quota on avocado generated an effect opposite to what was intended, as it increased Canadian exports of the product to the United States.

Regarding Ottawa, he pointed out that there is already progress in bilateral talks and that at some point in the near future Washington is expected to also open talks with the Canadian government, and then move on to trilateral meetings.

These conversations will address issues that cannot be dealt with bilaterally, such as the dispute settlement system, the rules of origin – which must be homogeneous for the three partners – and health regulation, among others.