WASHINGTON, D.C. – Top Mexican and U.S. CEOs today met withMexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and other senior Mexican and U.S. government officials at the 12th U.S.-Mexico CEO Dialogue hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial (CCE).
“Two years following the signing of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), today’s meeting of the U.S.-Mexico CEO Dialogue presented a crucial opportunity to advance U.S.-Mexican objectives of deepening business integration and shared prosperity between the United States and Mexico,” said Neil Herrington, Senior Vice President, Americas, U.S. Chamber of commerce.
The meeting allowed participants to take stock of the agreement’s benefits as well as implementation challenges that the private sector calls on both governments to help resolve. The gathered executives asked the U.S. government to prioritize:
- Strict interpretation of USMCA text on automotive rules of origin and new efforts to ease their compliance burdens.
- Elimination of uncertainty regarding the application of the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) for labor complaints.
- Cessation of proposals to extend the reach of discriminatory “Buy American” rules, including on North American electric vehicle supply chains.
The CEOs also expressed serious concern over the deteriorating investment climate in Mexico and called on the Mexican government to uphold its USMCA-related commitments by:
- Eradicating energy sector policies that unfairly favor state-owned enterprises at the expense of private sector providers.
- Eliminating burdensome “Carta Porte” requirements and associated USMCA Article 7 implementation challenges.
- Addressing systemic delays and denials in permitting and licensing across key sectors such as hydrocarbons and customs.
- Ceasing closures of installations such as energy terminals, mines and quarries in actions often devoid of due process.
- Accelerating significantly the pace of approval processes for biopharmaceutical, agricultural biotech, medical device and food products.
As is the custom of the CEO Dialogue, Mexican and U.S. executives came to the table with recommendations and private sector deliverables centering around trade policy, trade facilitation, trade in services, energy and investment. The Chamber applauds both the U.S. and Mexican governments’ commitment to building a more prosperous and secure future for the people of North America.
“The business community is committed to making North America the most dynamic and competitive region in the world by building resilient supply chains, advancing the economic development of southern Mexico, and driving the continent’s energy transition,” said Neil Herrington. “To make this possible, we urge the U.S. and Mexican governments to establish an investment climate that ensures certainty, transparency, predictability, stability and sanctity of contracts.”
The U.S. and Mexican business communities look forward to working with our government counterparts on the opportunities before us to advance shared economic and political objectives and recommendations under the USMCA framework.
