LatinNews Daily - 08 November 2021

Mexico: On 3 November 40 US Republican legislators signed a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai among others, expressing “grave concern about reports of escalating efforts by [Mexico’s government] to exclude private companies from its energy sector in contravention of its international commitments, including the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)”. According to the letter, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration and his party have “championed regulatory and legislative efforts that have been ruled to be anti-competitive and harmful to the environment by Mexican courts. As such, they are also harmful to US investment, American workers, and the North American commitment to sustainability – all of which are concepts that are protected by the USMCA”. It states that in recent weeks, discriminatory and arbitrary enforcement actions have escalated with US private sector participation “explicitly hindered… and in some cases outright blocked… in Mexico’s fuels markets.” It cites media reports that the Mexican government has suspended the permits of several US-owned fuel storage terminals, while using the National Guard to force the closure of 23 fuel-related facilities, such as storage sites, and partial closures of 17 others.

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