Page 15 - NorthAmOil Week 45

NorthAmOil POLICY NorthAmOil

US companies have
been affected by
Mexican President
Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador’s policy of
backing state-run
giants.

Latin America experts see Biden pushing

Mexico on US energy investments

US-MEXICO SEVERAL Latin America observers have spec- Cuellar told Reuters in late October. He also said
ulated that US President-elect Joe Biden may that he expected the president-elect to adhere
push harder than the incumbent Donald Trump strictly to the terms of joint accords such as the
to uphold the interests of US companies seeking USMCA.
to invest in Mexico’s energy sector. Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico
For example, Shannon O’Neil, a senior fellow Institute at the Wilson Centre, also empha-
for Latin America Studies at the Council on For- sised the likelihood that the incoming presi-
eign Relations (CFR), said she expected Biden to dent would focus on enforcement of existing
mount a stronger defence of private US firms in rules and agreements. “A Biden administra-
the face of the Mexican government’s shows of tion would look at the wording of the USMCA
preference for public-sector players. To date, she and would look at the mechanisms that are
wrote in an article published by Bloomberg ear- in place in that agreement for investor-state
lier this week, Trump has not shown much inter- resolutions and state-state resolutions, and I
est in the complaints of US companies affected would bet they would launch a series of chal-
by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s lenges in the eventuality that Mexico is found
policy of backing state-run giants such as Pemex to have violated the USMCA as it concerns
and CFE. US investors in Mexico,” he told Natural Gas
“The White House hasn’t even defended the Intelligence.
private sector, remaining eerily quiet as Mexico Wood described the Trump administration’s
restricted or cancelled the contracts of US-based lack of response to CFE’s decision to renegotiate
renewable energy companies in seeming viola- several natural gas pipeline contracts last year as
tion of the new USMCA [US-Mexico-Canada a “baseline” point of reference driven by a focus
Agreement on trade],” O’Neil said. “More than on the US domestic energy sector. “Under Pres-
three dozen Republican and Democratic mem- ident Trump, we have not seen any enthusiasm
bers of Congress [have] instead stepped into the thus far for pushing the Mexican government
breach.” on issues related to US companies operating in
Her words echoed comments made before Mexico, and in particular US firms that have
the election by Henry Cuellar, a Democratic invested in Mexico,” he commented. “And the
congressman from Texas who also serves as big reason for that, of course, is that President
chairman of the US-Mexico Inter-Parliamentary Trump thinks they should not be investing in
Group. “I think Biden will be able to tell Mexico other countries; they should be investing in the
to make sure that we abide by the rule of law if United States. And he has been fairly consistent
you have any contracts with energy or whatever,” about that.”™

Week 45 12•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15