In the last 30 years, since the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), North America’s share in world trade has fallen from 15 % to 13%, while Europe went from having a 50% market share to 40%, Pedro Casas, AmCham’s director general and executive vice president, said in a conference this Wednesday at the presentation of the document. In this period, East Asia went from having 15% to more than 30%, he added.
“We are not calling North America moment because moments are finite and short in time. E is the age of North America because the eras are long, substantive; weigh in time. This is going to be long,” Casas said.
The points that will be presented to the presidential candidates are:
Security and rule of law:
1. Security for the engine of the economy.
2. Cybersecurity and the challenges of the future.
3. Protection of intellectual property and reduction of piracy.
4. Mexico accurate and transparent in public purchases and tenders.
Economy and public finances:
5. Tax efficiency, a comprehensive tax reform.
Foreign trade:
6. Business facilitation to reach full potential.
7. Connecting Mexico.
8. Securing the future with energy integration.
investment attraction:
9. Historical opportunity – Nearshoring and productive chains.
10. Leave no one behind – South-Southeast Development.
Well-being and sustainable growth:
11. Agenda 2030 and SDGs.
12. Resilience in agribusiness.
13. Energy transition – securing the future for the next generations.
14. A healthy population is a productive and well-being population.
15. The Mexicans of the future and the labor force.
16. Promotion of the tourism sector.
Innovation and digital economy:
17. The Mexico of ideas, R&D strategies.
18. Digital justice, efficiency, access and speed.
19. Fintech, the boost to financial inclusion.
20. The future of work and health care.
21. Digital transformation within everyone’s reach and the App Economy.
22. E-commerce and digital platforms as a pillar of the economy and the promotion of SMEs.
In a first stage, announced Daniel Baima, president of AmCham, the document will be shared with all the candidates for the presidency of Mexico.
In a second phase, he added, meetings will be held with the candidates to find out if and how they will deliver some of these recommendations to their campaign proposals.
Finally, there will be meetings with the transition team of whoever is elected president to give continuity to this work.
urgent points
Of these six axes, on which it is urgent to start working is the rule of law and certainty, because “it is a cross-cutting issue that is in the jargon of our companies every day. The country needs reforms. So, how and what type is what we want to change”, pointed out the AmCham leader in an interview after the conference.
The second issue on which it is urgent to work has to do with the commercial link with the United States.
“This year we are going with the current investments to go for more than 800,000 million dollars of binational trade. We all need important investments for our country and we need them to materialize in order to have the human and social return that we want”, the president of the Chamber announced.
In this sense, he added, work must be done on components related to infrastructure, energy, water; as well as solving logistical problems and at border crossings, so that said investments materialize. Innovation is the third aspect in the urgent need to get to work. It is time for Mexico to move on from traditional manufacturing and maquila and “how do we migrate to do what the world needs. Mexico has a huge potential point,” said Baima.
