López Obrador says that Mexico should not reopen T-MEC negotiations
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said on Thursday that his country should not reopen the negotiation of the free trade agreement with the United States and Canada (T-MEC), which is pending ratification.
"It is in our interest to maintain this treaty and that no pretext be given for the negotiation to be reopened," the president said at a press conference in the face of doubts over whether the US Congress will ratify this treaty whose negotiations were closed on November 30.
Although the Mexican president said that the legislators have "autonomy," he was convinced that the Mexican Senate will ratify the T-MEC and requested the same to the US Legislative.
"Regardless of the correlation of forces in the United States Congress, we want to comply so that the United States Government will complete and complete this negotiation process of the treaty," he said.
With the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House in 2017, the renegotiation of the then North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) began.
The Mexican government was then chaired by Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) who managed to close the negotiation on the last day of his term with the approval of López Obrador, who at that time was president-elect.
"We were not an obstacle when the treaty was renegotiated," recalled López Obrador, president since December 1, who said that "it matters a lot to maintain good relations with the United States Government."
The only interference that the leftist had in the renegotiation was the inclusion of "two paragraphs that reaffirm the right of Mexico to manage its natural resources with authority and sovereignty," he said.
In this way, he said, it was possible to change a chapter in energy of the commercial agreement that did not convince the president.
In his conference at the National Palace, the Mexican president was favorable to extreme "transparency" of government decisions and qualified his words on Wednesday, when he asked the newspaper Reforma to reveal who leaked the letter sent to King Felipe VI of Spain in the one that demanded apologies for the conquest.
"If the Reformation does not want to reveal it, nothing happens, there are no problems, I'm just saying that transparency must be circular," said the president.
He added that "it would be interesting" to know if the Spanish government leaked the letter to the newspaper: "It would have a different connotation how a foreign government filters a letter to a Mexican newspaper."
On the other hand, Lopez Obrador announced that he will soon present a plan to eradicate the corruption of Mexican customs, after verifying millionaire detours by officials in the customs of Manzanillo, in the western state of Colima.
"All these officials are going to be removed, we have very bad reports from the Manzanillo customs, the customs of Manzanillo is going to be completely cleaned up and we are going to clear the customs of corruption," he said.
The also leader of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) warned corrupt public servants that "if they cling to the idea that they are going to brew, they will not achieve it".
And while hitting the presidential lectern with his fist, López Obrador said: "knock, knock, knock, knock, knock on the door, corruption and impunity are over."
