Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced Tuesday that he will meet with officials from the Donald Trump administration in Washington on Thursday in what he called the “first meeting” in a series of negotiations between the two countries.
The meeting comes at a fragile moment for the two neighbors, whose bilateral trade exceeded $800 billion last year. Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico — although he has so far limited it to steel and aluminum — and signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
Ebrard told reporters Tuesday that it will be the “first meeting to be clear about what the United States is proposing, what the new administration is looking for.” He added that the main argument that Mexico will bring to the meeting will be that “integration between the two countries is enormous.”
The Economy Secretary detailed that the meeting would be with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and several Trump officials in a conversation that would focus on tariffs on the steel and aluminum, as well as the importance of the bilateral trade relationship. The Mexican secretary said he hoped to make other proposals to “improve” existing exchanges.
Ebrard met Trump during his first administration and had to negotiate with him different issues when he served as Mexico’s foreign minister in the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024).
The threat of imposing broader tariffs, as a context for the meeting, could trigger a recession in Mexico, according to analysts. It could even start a trade war since Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum promised reciprocal taxes that could trigger price increases for American consumers.
Although Mexico has tried to diversify its trade relations, economists say that decades of free trade and geographic proximity limit its ability to make significant changes in the short term.
On Tuesday, Ebrard seemed determined to avoid an escalation. “Our response will never be to hold grudges against the conflict, but rather to move forward,” he said.
Source: local10
