China, Mexico to Deepen Ties in Trade, Investment Clodomiro Puentes - World Socialist Web Site
go to original December 17, 2016

Mexico seeks closer engagement with China (CCTV.com)

As the initial shock of the US election results begins to wear off, Mexican ruling circles are beginning to grope towards a response to the political and economic implications of an incoming Trump administration.

Dissatisfaction with perceived mismanagement of Mexico’s position relative to Washington by the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto is increasingly articulated not only by the overwhelming majority of the population, but by sections of the ruling class and its political representatives as well.

Dissension within ruling circles has been fueled by Mexico’s underperforming economy, which has consistently fallen short of projected growth rates for four years, as its currency has gone down in value from about 13 pesos to the dollar at the beginning of the EPN administration, to nearly 21 pesos in the wake of the election of Donald Trump.

There are growing demands for policies designed to hedge against president-elect Trump’s promises to renegotiate or even scrap NAFTA, deport millions of undocumented immigrants and impose tariff walls on Mexican and Chinese goods. This was reflected in a move towards deepening trade ties with China in a meeting between officials of the two countries on Sunday, and in the auctioning off of two deep water oil blocks to the China Offshore Oil Corporation last week as part of the privatization of Mexico’s state-owned oil firm Pemex.

The APEC summit held in Lima in November was notable in that China all but assumed the leading role, and in particular affirmed its commitments to its trading partners in Latin America. Speaking at the summit, Peña Nieto expressed the Mexican ruling class’ desire to press forward with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which now remains dead in the water as far as participation by the US is concerned. He also insisted on the need to “modernize rather than renegotiate” NAFTA and voiced Mexico’s willingness to “further strengthen this strategic alliance.”

Read the rest at World Socialist Web Site

Related: Mexican Banks Cut Credit Card Exposure on Trump, Rate Risks (Reuters)

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