MEXICO CITY — After almost three years of negotiations, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, known as USMCA, will take effect July 1. On Friday, the Trump administration notified Congress of the new agreement date, and the Mexican president is including it in his economic plan to face the pandemic.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his government will solve the pandemic crisis based on morals rather than in neoliberal capitalism.
"We're not going to put our country in debt, nor save those on top, like it happened during the sad history left by the neoliberal period," said the president.
But López Obrador is including in his plan a very neoliberal and capitalist policy: free trade.
"The (USMCA) agreement will bring more investment, more employment and more well-being," López Obrador said.
He says this will directly benefit 4 million workers from the maquila and auto industries.
But López Obrador has been criticized for not offering economic relief and, instead, allowing the construction of state-owned enterprises.
