Mexico Ratifies Trade Pact with U.S., Canada.
Mexico's Senate overwhelmingly voted for a broad rewrite of trade rules between the United States, Canada and Mexico-making the nation the first of the three partners to ratify the pact designed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"Mexico takes the lead, with clear signs that ours is an open, market economy," Mexico's deputy foreign minister and chief trade negotiator for North America, Jesús Seade, tweeted following the vote.
"We trust our partners will soon do the same for the sake of a strong North America, with clear rules, attractive for investment, stable and competitive." U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer called Mexico's ratification of the agreement a "Crucial step forward." Mexican approval was welcomed at a time when its economy is in a sharp slowdown.
"We applaud the Mexican government for advancing the process and we encourage the legislatures in the U.S. and Canada to finish the ratification." Both Canada and Mexico began the process of seeking legislative approval of the pact in late May after settling a dispute with the U.S. over steel and aluminum tariffs.
Mexico pressed ahead with the ratification despite the U.S. threat of imposing tariffs on all imports from Mexico if its southern neighbor didn't do enough to curb the flow of migrants crossing Mexico to the U.S. border.
After a frantic week of meetings in the U.S. capital, an agreement was reached putting off the tariffs while Mexico took measures to reduce the number of mostly Central American migrants passing through the Latin American nation to the U.S. Mr. López Obrador insists he wants to avoid confrontation with the U.S., and has stressed the importance of the trade deal to Mexico, which sends 80% of its exports to the U.S. Mr. Trump has praised Mexico's crackdown on the passage of undocumented migrants, but has also kept open the possibility of applying tariffs in the future if he's not satisfied with the results of the Mexican measures.
" The trade pact could "encourage greater investment and help promote growth in the coming years" for Mexico, said Jonathan Terluk, a trade and economic policy analyst at the Empra political risk consultancy in Mexico City.
Submitted June 19, 2019 at 07:59PM by VCUBNFO http://bit.ly/31Lqg6y
