MEXICO CITY : Mexico is planning to work with the rest of North America to lure manufacturing investment across the Pacific from Asia and reduce large trade deficits with the region, Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O said on Friday.
Speaking at an event featuring U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Ramirez said more details would be set out in the coming weeks of how industrial capacity in the region could be boosted, helping to reduce bottlenecks in goods supply.
He noted that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had pitched the idea during a North American leaders summit in November and was speaking as Granholm visited Mexico to address U.S. concerns that Mexico’s energy policy is sapping investment.
“Our plan, and of which you will learn more, is a project to win back manufacturing capacity from Asia to North America. Not just to Mexico, to all of North America,” he said.
Lopez Obrador has sent a bill to Congress that would strengthen state control of the power market at the expense of private companies, causing alarm among major investors in Mexico, and upsetting many of the country’s diplomatic allies.
The president casts his plan to change the constitution to favor the state power utility as a matter of national security, saying past governments skewed the market in favor of private capital, weakening public finances and hurting consumers.
However, critics say his plan is hurting investment in wind and solar power, will increase costs, and make Mexico too reliant on fossil fuels used by the state power company.
Speaking before Ramirez, Granholm stressed the importance of North America working together to promote renewable energy use for its collective economic benefit, and of resolving pending questions about Mexico’s plan for its power market.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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