Andrea Becerril
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, October 19, 2025, p. 9
The president of the Senate Foreign Relations Commission, Alejandro Murat Hinojosa, reported that next Tuesday the interparliamentary meeting between Mexico and the European Union (EU) will begin, in which one of the central topics will be the renegotiation of the global agreement that the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum will sign next year with the Europeans.
In an interview, he specified that in this bilateral meeting, in the context of the Mexico-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission, which takes place every year and on this occasion it will do so in our country, the efforts of legislative diplomacy will continue to finish generating agreements around this renegotiation.
In the commission, he explained, the European Parliament and the Mexican Congress are represented, and “for us the most important thing is that more than 85 percent of the prohibitions or barriers that existed so that agricultural products can be exported were released and mechanisms were also established to build on energy and technology issues.”
Murat highlighted that this is a great opportunity for the diversification of national exports. An extremely relevant fact, he explained, is that trade with the European Union is less than 10 percent of that with the United States.
If it is considered, he explained, that the 27 countries of the European Union have more than 440 million inhabitants, with very high per capita income, “Mexico has to take advantage of the situation and increase exchange with the EU by between 15 and 20 percent.” In this, he maintained, parliamentary diplomacy will play a relevant role, as it will also do in the review of the trade agreement with the United States and Canada (T-MEC).
The senator specified that consultations between the three signatory countries will allow the review of the treaty to “come to fruition,” but the Mexican Congress, especially the Senate, must do its part. The members of the Foreign Relations Commission, which he chairs, he explained, will seek rapprochement with popular representatives, with the US Congressional committees involved in the issue, as well as with the chambers of commerce and business, especially in Texas and California, states with which more than 50 percent of the northern neighbor’s commercial exchange takes place.
“If there is an opportunity, we will also speak with the governors, within the framework of a frank, open dialogue, accompanied by hard data that allows us to speak objectively of the benefits that the country means for the three signatory nations and of Mexico’s progress on issues that interest the partners, such as the fight against organized crime.”
In that sense, he indicated, in his recent visit to Mexico, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, recognized the importance of the bilateral relationship, “and the fact that consultations regarding the T-MEC have started is, without a doubt, a positive message, as expressed in the Senate by Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente and the Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard.”
The above, added to President Sheinbaum’s communication with her American counterpart, Donald Trump, “gives certainty that the T-MEC will survive.”
