By Eduardo Rivera S.
Tick, tick. The date on the calendar is clear, March is the turning point in the trade relationship between Mexico, the United States and Canada, the terrible tariffs are advancing and the protectionist discourse of U.S. President Donald Trump threatens the transnational interests and advances of more than 30 years.
In my years as a businessman and communicator, I have rarely been able to relive a moment like this, although the immediate memory evokes the negotiation of the now defunct North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the success of the American businessman led to the evolution of this mechanism and the creation of a new one that would put a more level playing field among its participants.
Now, in his second term, he seems to have learned something: conflict resolution based on threats and economic impositions, or in this case tariffs, are the way forward in the Trump era.
Although the debate between the benefits of the Mexico, United States and Canada Agreement (T-MEC) or NAFTA itself are varied and even questionable, the reality is that both tools allowed the country to position itself in the capital market and even have a greater amount of consumption of goods, hence the key to the threats, which would not only violate the core of the mechanism signed by the three countries, but would also bring repercussions at a geopolitical level.
Can a phone call solve everything?
Recently, the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, revived the back-and-forth she had at the beginning of the year with the current President of the United States, this time the topic was not the Gulf of Mexico, but the damage that the imposition of 25% tariffs could do to both countries.
Firm in her position, the president, who has already managed to postpone this measure on one occasion through the security plan, predicted an agreement before the end of the week.
“Tell your families that there is a President, governors and an entire people to protect them, (…) let it be heard well and let it be heard loud: the United States would not be what it is if it were not for the Mexicans who work on the other side of the border.”
Forceful? Sure, emphatic, of course, so what’s missing? Help from inside the United States.
In mid-February, the U.S. auto industry, specifically Ford CEO Jim Farley, made an appearance in Washington to express his concern about the tariffs, since the measure would be devastating to the international eye for supply chains.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also made a similar plea, requesting the same treatment, to eliminate the idea of tariffs altogether or else a trade war that would harm the region. As can be seen, the business community, which has a notorious voice in the actions of the U.S. Congress, made its position clear, and as the president said: “Nobody decides for us here”.
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