In response to statements by President Donald Trump, who the day before celebrated the 1847 U.S. invasion, after which Mexico lost more than half of its territory, President Claudia Sheinbaum responded succinctly: “You already know my opinion: we are not Santa Anna. We must always defend our sovereignty.”
She then made a brief reference to the negotiation process of the trade agreement between Mexico, the United States, and Canada. She acknowledged that the U.S. government raised 54 concerns that, in her view, affect the trade relationship. “Practically all of them have been resolved. There are some that cannot be implemented exactly as they say. For example, they said: barriers are being put up in the electricity sector.”
Mexico denied that it was acting in that manner. There is simply a new Constitution, a new law that establishes that public participation in the market must be 54 percent and private participation 46 percent, the president explained.
Furthermore, the President announced that the federal government is preparing a reform to the Foreign Trade Law that will establish guarantees of compliance with environmental and, above all, labor regulations in Mexico for producers who intend to export, stated President Claudia Sheinbaum. In other words, they will need to have an export labor certificate, and to obtain it, they will have to demonstrate that they employ workers who have social security coverage.
During her press conference, she again referred to the case of the agricultural workers of San Quintín and the intention to correct labor irregularities through the Assistance Center that is planned to be established in that region, and with coordination between the federal and Baja California governments to carry out inspections at workplaces.
“It’s coming. We even spoke with the business owners to get them on board, to avoid any legal challenges or anything like that, but rather to reach an agreement, and from there, to have the guarantee that they are complying with labor justice for the workers,” he noted.
