Mexico asks U.S., Canada to grant automakers transition for USMCA rules

April 7, 2020
Source: Reuters

Concept of USMCA or the new NAFTA United States Mexico Canada agreement, trade deal and economic dea

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s government on Tuesday asked the United States and Canada to grant its automotive industry extra time to adapt its supply chains as the deadline for implementing a new North American trade deal approaches.

“We have absolute understanding of what the industry is facing and we’re willing to have a transition period specifically for the auto sector as it has been requested,” Deputy Economy Minister Luz Maria de la Mora said at a webcast event hosted by the Wilson Center think tank in Washington.

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Check our webcast Implementing USMCA: A Conversation with Luz Maria de la Mora, Mexico’s Undersecretary for Foreign Trade

Coronavirus on the border: Why Mexico has so few cases compared with the U.S.

Source: The Washington Post, 04/06/2020

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

MEXICO CITY — The U.S.-Mexico border has long been a region of contrasts. But people in both countries are puzzling over the latest one: The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus on the Mexican side is just a small fraction of the U.S. count.

On Sunday, confirmed cases in California topped 6,200, compared with just 23 in Baja California. Arizona had 919 cases, dwarfing the 14 in neighboring Sonora. New Mexico reported 237 cases; in Chihuahua state, there were six.

The U.S.-Mexico border is the busiest in the world, with an estimated 1 million legal crossings per day. The neighbors’ economies are intertwined.

 

So why is there such a big difference in cases?

The disparity reflects, in part, a time lag. Mexico did not report its first case until Feb. 27 — a month after the virus was detected in the United States. To date, the country has counted 993 cases, less than 1 percent of the U.S. total.

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Coronavirus Crisis: Three Actions Mexico’s President Needs To Take Now

Source: Forbes, 04/06/2020

Mexico’s President has been widely criticized for his actions and messaging as the country prepares to confront the spread of coronavirus. Progressive magazine Mother Jones called Lopez Obrador “the most irresponsible president on the continent.” Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, wrote, “Lopez Obrador has mostly taken a dangerously dismissive and outright irresponsible attitude toward the coronavirus. [He] and his administration have already recklessly endangered the lives of many Mexicans.”

During the month of March while the number of deaths surged in Europe and the U.S., Lopez Obrador held daily press conferences and organized campaign-style rallies, focusing mainly on promoting his existing policy agenda, criticizing his political rivals, and warning about the “epidemic” of fake news. Lopez Obrador was on a weekend trip in northern Mexico when his Ministry of Health declared that the country needed to take unprecedented actions to control the spread of the virus. Upon his return to Mexico City, he stayed out of the spotlight and let his cabinet declare a state of “medical emergency” and announce a month-long quarantine and a confusing and hastily prepared ban on all non-essential business activities.

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Mexico, Central America urge action to stop coronavirus spreading from US

April 2, 2020
Source: ABC News

As the United States increasingly becomes the epicenter of the novel coronavirus pandemic, its neighbors in Mexico and Central America are urging new steps to prevent the virus’ spread to their populations, including a halt to deportations and increased security along the southern U.S. border — an ironic turn under President Donald Trump, who has made a border wall his political calling card.

But instead of heeding those calls, the Trump administration continues to deport migrants — including an increasing number of unaccompanied minors — and return asylum seekers across the border to Mexico to wait for their day in U.S. immigration court — even after at least one man deported back to Guatemala tested positive for COVID-19, the name of the disease from the virus.

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Mexican miners to keep working essential projects during coronavirus -sources

April 1,  2020
Source: Reuters

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s mining sector, one of the country’s major industries, will be able to continue operating projects deemed to be essential during the public health crisis caused by coronavirus, two government officials told Reuters.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration earlier this week declared a health emergency due to the viral outbreak which requires that non-essential work be shut down or minimized.

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Mexico’s president shifts tone on coronavirus, urges people to stay home, warns of dire consequences

Source: Los Angeles Times, 03/30/2020

MEXICO CITY  — As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been criticized for what many called a lackadaisical posture — urging people to hug, shaking hands and kissing well-wishers as he stumped and extolling his personal talismans: Catholic scapulars, a shamrock and $2 bill.

“Because of our culture, Mexicans are very resistant to calamities,” the president said in a video recorded a week ago in a Oaxaca city eatery and circulated on social media.

“Continue bringing the family to eat in restaurants,” López Obrador advised compatriots, arguing that such activity bolsters “the popular economy.”

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Life On The U.S.-Mexico Frontier Dramatically Altered By Partial Border Shutdown

March 28, 2020
Source: NPR

The streets of downtown Laredo, Texas, are deserted. For decades, this dense retail district has catered to Mexican shoppers coming across the bridge from Nuevo Laredo. But these days, stores like Cindy’s Electronics, Classic Perfumes, and Casa Raul Mens’ Clothes are shuttered.

“Now our business has dropped 80 to 90%,” says Natividad Dominguez, leaning on a glass case full of empanadas, turnovers and donuts at Pano’s Bakery. “People would come across the bridge and pick up a donut. But no more. It’s affecting us a lot.”

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