Carlos Fernández-Vega: Mexico Inc.

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It seems that, finally, The Mexican government is beginning to turn to other markets, to friendlier nations and less schizophrenic governments, as Donald Trump's government will understand. After six months of constant harassment, threats, extortion, and disrespect toward Mexico from the White House resident, President Sheinbaum announced that she spoke with Brazilian President Lula with the goal of deepening our collaboration on various issues , including the expansion of the bilateral trade agreement and scientific, educational, and pharmaceutical cooperation, among others. In addition, it was recently announced that Mexican avocado exports to that South American nation will increase to meet demand in a potential market of 200 million consumers.

It could be a first step toward redirecting Mexican foreign trade to friendlier and more intelligent latitudes. While the hostile U.S. market is significant, it's not too late to cut the umbilical cord (which only a masochist believes necessary to cling to) of extreme dependence on Mexico's northern neighbor, to which 83 percent of our foreign trade is destined (including the USMCA, 3.1 percent goes to Canada). Such a decision is also useful for rethinking Mexico's strategy in this area, given that it's ridiculous that Latin America and the Caribbean (with around 670 million inhabitants, half of them in Brazil and Mexico) barely represents 4.5 percent of the total (figures are from the Bank of Mexico as of the end of 2024).

Brazil is Latin America's largest economy, yet only 0.8 percent of Mexico's total exports are destined for Brazil. Lula long understood the importance of diversification and multilateralism, and together with Russia, India, and China, he created the BRIC group (South Africa was later added, thus adding the S to the acronym). Mexico, on the other hand, rejected the invitation to join this mechanism and remained committed to unilateralism and dependence on its northern neighbor, and today it is suffering the harsh consequences.

In her morning press conference yesterday, President Sheinbaum attempted to clarify her agreement with Lula: of course, we're talking about complementarities, not a Free Trade Agreement (with Brazil) or anything like that, but rather complementing our economies, and having cooperation and collaboration. For example, they have a very important pharmaceutical industry and their health agency. We have Cofepris, which is ours, for medicines and medical equipment, etc. So (it's about) being able to establish collaboration between both institutions, with investment from both sides of the pharmaceutical industry .

Since President Lula came to my inauguration, the president explained, and then when I was at the G-20 in Rio, and now that we've met at the G-7, we've proposed strengthening relations with Brazil on several issues: one is trade, and others such as scientific and educational cooperation, etc. Another issue, for example, is ethanol. Brazil has extensive experience in ethanol production, which is also a possibility for the sugar industry and sugar mills in Mexico. So, collaboration is being considered on this issue and some others of mutual interest. So, from the very beginning, we agreed that this collaboration would exist, and now it's already a reality .

To this end, he announced that a Brazilian government delegation, led by Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and representatives from that country's business community will visit Mexico at the end of August. And here we need to organize for all Mexican businesspeople interested in attending this meeting, which is not just a formal meeting, but a working meeting to find out where we can strengthen cooperation .

So, let it be the first step, but not the only one: the global market is very large, and as long as Americans don't become civilized and respectful, goodbye.

The slices of the cake

The U.S. embassy in Mexico says that U.S. companies refine the illegal crude oil shipped from Mexico; the cartels take it to Texas, and complicit intermediaries (from there, of course) legalize it and export it back. Well, and who are they? Absolute silence. When the gringos are involved in dirty business, which is a regular occurrence, the White House always reports robberies without robbers; rapes without rapists; arms trafficking, drug trafficking, fuel theft , or whatever, but without traffickers, because, according to them, they're all Mexican .

Twitter: @cafevega

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