U.S. Ambassador Christopher Landau noted that this is not an auspicious time to invest in Mexico because the government is giving worrying signals to investors.
He explained that US security depends largely on Mexico’s prosperity and security.
“So for me it’s an essential part of my job as an ambassador, it’s to try to fix those problems when they arise and frankly try to encourage the investment of my connationals, but I can’t lie to them either, and I can’t tell you that it’s a good time to invest in Mexico if you see things that are very daunting to foreign investment,” said Landau, who was the special guest of Concamin’s Tenth First COVID Weekly Report.
“In several sectors, we have obviously seen troubling things and as I always say, Mexico is a sovereign country as we are and any country has the right to establish or change its domestic economic or social policies. But also at the same time, these changes can have very negative effects on domestic and foreign investment,” he added.
Read: Bad forecasts follow: Mexico’s economy will plummet 10.5% this year, IMF forecasts
He said that although President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had said that the rules and contracts entered into by previous governments would be respected, this seems to change.
“You can’t say at the same time we want to attract investment and capital from other parts of the world and also say, let’s change the rules. One impacts the other, cannot have both policies at once, or a country has a policy of attracting investment or a country has a policy of scaring off investment,” Landau told entrepreneurs.
He added that the government has said that they did not agree with policies of previous governments but that “the rules of the established game” would be respected.
“The Government of Mexico has said, for example, that in several cases they did not agree with some of the policies of previous governments, but that the promises that had already been made in the past, the rules of the game that had been established, would be respected.”
“But actions in the energy sector have created uncertainty about that government promise to respect what was done in the past and not change the rules of the game,” the U.S. ambassador said.
Find out: Cofece, the body criticized by AMLO, goes against Energy for curbing private investment in the sector
However, Landau sees a “golden moment” for Mexico after the pandemic, as he believes it can take advantage and attract foreign investment “I hope they don’t waste it because for me it would be a historic tragedy to miss that opportunity and that window won’t be open much longer. Today the worlds are evaluating their supply chains and Mexico should be a natural destination, especially with the entry of the new T-MEC.”
A couple of hours after the meeting with entrepreneurs, Landau noted on his Twitter account that he did not say that it was not time to invest, but that “investors seek certainty, and that there is nothing worse than changing the rules of the game.”
It is being reported that I told CONCAMIN this morning that this is not an opportune time to invest in Mexico. I didn’t say that. What I said is that investors seek certainty, and that there’s nothing worse than changing the rules of the game.
— Ambassador Christopher Landau (@USAmbMex) June 25, 2020
Here you can hear the ambassador’s participation (from the 28th minute).
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