Mexico’s New President Backs NAFTA Talks

Mexico President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he will support the government’s current trade position in its trilateral NAFTA talks with Canada and the U.S.

Lopez Obrador won a landslide victory on July 1 but won’t be inaugurated until Dec. 1. He has already had a 30-minute phone call with President Donald Trump covering general topics about economic development.

A past mayor of Mexico City and two-time presidential candidate, Lopez Obrador is described as a pragmatist whose domestically focused agenda is to reduce crime, poverty and corruption. He also favors one of Trump’s demands about a revised North American Free Trade Agreement: higher wages for Mexican auto workers.

The pace of NAFTA talks has slowed in the wake of White House tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum, and Trump’s threat of a blanket 20%-25% import tax on all cars made outside the U.S. Lopez Obrador’s pick for finance minister says he is optimistic about a NAFTA agreement after the U.S. holds its midterm congressional elections on Nov. 6.