Marcelo Ebrard

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The Mexican Federal Congress has passed long-awaited tariffs on over 1,400 products from non-members of free trade agreements with Mexico.

The main trading partners are China, India, South Korea, Brazil, and Russia.

El Economista, 2025.

The main political debate is whether this is a measure to protect national industry or to placate U.S. interests in the wake of the oncoming review of the USMCA.

Minister of the Economy Marcelo Ebrard is insisting this is a measure to safeguard Mexican jobs, that it is not country-specific, and that it is an economic rather than political policy.

Opponents are claiming this is a diplomatic measure to align Mexico with North America and to divert trade away from China.

This news story tops off a topsy-turvy year for international business professors.

And so when you have a trade war that has reached this boiling point, you would think, all right, cooler heads should be heading to Ottawa or making an invitation for Mark Carney to come to the White House, right? Oh, no.

Howard Lutnick, who screwed up the deal to begin with when at the last minute he tried to push too hard for the auto industry and the steel industry, is on his way to Mexico, apparently to do the same thing with Claudia Sheinbaum and her economic, um, secretary, Marce- Marcelo, uh, uh, Ebrard.

Now, he's already met in the last week, Lutnick, with the Mexicans, uh, and the Mexican trade representatives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, during a G20 breakout session in which they talked about auto manufacturing and steel manufacturing.

And this is important because there-- you wouldn't know it by watching Donald Trump's economic policy But there is an agreement between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, it's known as the USMCA, right? That is supposed to govern trade, including the manufacturing of automobiles.

Foreign direct investment reached $40.9 billion in 2025, a 14.5% increase, over the same period in 2024 and already ahead of that full year's total of roughly $37 billion.

according to figures presented by Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard.

New investment, as opposed to reinvested earnings, more than tripled to $6.5 billion.

That capital is arriving even as Mexico's economy grew only 0.8% in 2025, with the Bank of Mexico and the OECD projecting a modest recovery to between 1.4% and 1.6% in 2026.

CBC's Jorge Barrera reports from Mexico City.

Trade tensions between Canada and the US do not favor Mexico, says Mexico's Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, after facing questions on the issue late this week in Mexico City.

"The North American region needs to integrate.

We have to work together," says Ebrard.

Real negotiations happened, nobody threatened the other.

And when the third round finished, U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer and Mexican Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard issued a joint statement describing their engagement as constructive.

we didn't get the same description.

And then they scheduled another round four in Washington in September.