Ramírez de la O calls for a review of trade relations with China

Alma E. Muñoz

Sent

The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, July 21, 2024, p. 3

San Luis Potosí, SLP., The Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, Rogelio Ramírez de la O, said that Mexico has to review its commercial relationship with China, because He sells to us and does not buy from us, and that is not reciprocal trade..

Before President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, he stated that We buy 119 billion dollars a year from China and sell 11 billion to them..

In view of the renegotiation of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC), he highlighted that in 2021 the President asked him to develop the Mexico Plan for Raise awareness that Mexico, like North America, needs to produce more than it consumes, because we are depending too much on China for basic products for our homes..

And we, he added, We are considering making this change in the investment policy and in the attention to foreign investment..

Of all its imports, the United States depends on China for 16.5 percent; Canada for 13.5 percent; and Mexico for 19.6 percent. situation that has led to a feeling of protecting our industries moreboth in the first country and in our own, he said.

During his participation in the Economic balance on industrial development and T-MECRamírez de la O, who will repeat as Secretary of Finance in the next six-year term, stressed that If we produce more in Mexico, this production requires an increase in employment of 520 thousand more people here, 600 thousand more in the United States and 260 thousand more people in China.which represents a incentive to produce more, have greater value, higher salary in North America.

He called to look at the country with critical eyes, to know that we still have work to do and find employment for our Mexican workers who are currently going to ask for it in other places.

In his speech, he recalled that after the US government facilitated China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, its exports increased from 3.8 to 14 percent in 22 years. In contrast, in North America – the United States, Mexico and Canada – they fell from 19 to 13 percent.

At the same time, he indicated, China’s share of global gross domestic product rose from 3.6 to 18 percent and that of North America fell from 35 to 29, while that of the United States from 30 to 25 percent.

It is logical that both Americans and Mexicans are demanding our fair share of this global demand and that is why we have Plan Mexico.

He mentioned that in the country we are busy in bringing the industry that left us, backas trade and geopolitical tensions between the United States and China are increasing, recalling the tariff rates that Washington is imposing on Chinese imports, starting in July 2018.

Ramírez de la O acknowledged that Mexico has a smaller advantage in producing in China, while maritime freight rates from Asia to North America “have skyrocketed and today we have a new chapter of containers stuck in the supply chain, containing products that we need and that we do not produce.

We have great opportunities to produce more, have a plant in Mexico, create more jobs in Mexico, and with this we will maintain our industry, our employment and our salaries.

At this event, the Secretary of Economy, Raquel Buenrostro, highlighted that Mexico’s economic situation is better than ever: we are the 12th largest economy in the world, we have good macroeconomic stability, we have broken records in employment, average salaries, minimum wages, foreign investment and exports.”

In turn, his successor, Marcelo Ebrard, who was a negotiator of the T-MEC in 2018, pointed out that in the renegotiation of the agreement in 2026, What needs to be negotiated and promoted will be from a position of strength, not weakness. of the government of Sheinbaum Pardo.