Mexico City — For the first time, a senior U.S. diplomat has acknowledged publicly that Mexican government policies threaten the very existence of North American free trade agreements, in place for the past three decades.
In an Aug. 22 statement, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar described proposed reforms to the Mexican judicial system as a "major risk" to Mexican democracy. He added that they also threatened "the historic commercial relationship" between Mexico and the United States.
Outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is pressuring federal legislators to approve his plan to fire all qualified judges and their staff across Mexico and to replace them with individuals chosen by public ballot.
The president, whose six-year administration ends on Sept. 30, also wants to remove the so-called "Writ of Amparo," which, since the mid-19th century, has enabled individuals to challenge alleged anti-constitutional actions by authorities. He aims to have all the measures approved before he leaves office.
"Based on my lifelong experience supporting the rule of law, I believe the popular direct election of judges is a major risk to the functioning of Mexico's democracy," Salazar said, according to Reuters.
Were it to be approved, the reform would threaten the U.S.-Mexico trade relationship, "which relies on investors' confidence in Mexico's legal framework," he added.
Canadian Ambassador Graeme Clark has also criticized the proposed reforms. "My investors are concerned. They want stability. They want a judicial system that works if there are problems," Reuters reported him as saying.
Street demonstrations against the proposed measures have been held in cities across Mexico in recent weeks, while financial institutions such as Fitch, CitiBanamex and Morgan Stanley have expressed concern.
Anipac (Asociación Nacional de Industrias del Plástico A.C.) has declined to comment.
According to the U.S. State Department, Mexico became the United States' top trading partner in early 2023, with bilateral trade totaling $263 billion in the first four months of the year and accounting for more than 15 percent of total U.S. trade.
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was implemented on July 1, 2020. It replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), signed in 1992 and implemented on Jan. 1, 1994.
Mexico exported plastics goods worth $10.26 billion to the U.S. in 2022, according to the United Nations COMTrade database on international trade.
It imported $20.29 billion worth of plastics goods from the U.S. in the same year, COMTrade said. The statistics were last updated in August, 2024.
Canadian exports of plastics to Mexico totaled $172.67 million in 2023, while its imports of plastics goods from Mexico were worth $159.51 million in 2022, according to the same database.