OTTAWA, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Canada and the US are going to argue at a North American leaders’ summit subsequent week that resolving a dispute over measures that favor Mexican power corporations would assist draw extra international funding to Mexico, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned on Friday.
“Each (U.S) President (Joe) Biden and I are going to be… pretty clear with President (Andres Manuel) Lopez Obrador that this… must be understood as a method to assist Mexico develop, a method to proceed to attract in investments from corporations in Canada and the US,” Trudeau instructed Reuters.
Requested if he hoped to make progress on the summit in Mexico Metropolis, Trudeau mentioned: “Completely”.
The USA and Canada entered into dispute settlement talks final 12 months with Mexico below a North American commerce deal, referred to as the USMCA, charging that Mexican power insurance policies have been discriminatory and undermine worldwide companies.
Trudeau will arrive in Mexico Metropolis on Monday for a three-day go to, which is able to embrace bilateral conferences with each Biden and Lopez Obrador. He’ll meet with enterprise leaders from all three international locations on Monday.
Lopez Obrador, a leftist power nationalist, has pledged to revive state-owned energy utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and oil producer Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), which he argues his predecessors intentionally undermined to cede Mexico’s power market to foreigners.
“I perceive he needs to place extra of an emphasis on the state-owned power corporations,” Trudeau mentioned in his workplace in Ottawa, “however it needs to be accomplished in a accountable method, in a method that understands that he is part of (USMCA) and he has to abide by these guidelines.”
The USA and Canada are difficult amendments to Mexican laws that prioritize distribution of CFE-generated energy over cleaner sources of power offered by private-sector suppliers, resembling wind and photo voltaic.
“Canadian corporations invested about C$13 billion ($9.7 billion) in power infrastructure. In Mexico, C$5 billion of that’s particularly round renewables,” Trudeau mentioned.
His message to enterprise leaders shall be that the brand new commerce pact is working, he mentioned, and is “creating jobs, alternative and development throughout our international locations”.
Talks with Biden will probably deal with “maximizing financial alternatives” as a result of there may be quite a lot of “financial turbulence coming within the coming months,” Trudeau mentioned, citing provide chains, the struggle in Ukraine, inflation and better rates of interest.
($1 = 1.3437 Canadian {dollars})
Reporting by Steve Scherer
Modifying by Alistair Bell
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.
