Mexico's foreign minister pitches USMCA at G20 talks in Atlanta
Roberto Velasco called the trade pact a base for regional resilience and set out five priorities for a tense global moment.
Mexican Foreign Secretary Roberto Velasco Álvarez pitched the USMCA trade pact as a source of resilience for North America's economies at a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Atlanta, chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mexico's Foreign Ministry said. The talks ran Friday and Saturday.
Economic integration, Velasco said at the close, "must translate into stable jobs and fair incomes." He added that "economic security is built through cooperation." He also asked that small and midsize businesses be brought into supply chains, tying the idea to President Claudia Sheinbaum's Plan México industrial strategy.
On Friday, in a session on geopolitical tensions, Velasco said Mexico's response rests on sovereign equality and the country's pacifist tradition, anchored in two constitutional principles: non-intervention and the peaceful settlement of disputes. States, he said, "are subject to the same rules," according to the ministry's statement from that day.
He proposed five priorities:
- Give diplomacy and the United Nations more weight in resolving conflicts peacefully.
- Make sure humanitarian aid reaches the people who need it.
- Protect the supply of essential goods through sturdier supply chains, diversified routes and more production capacity.
- Tackle the roots of instability and displacement, which Velasco traced to poverty, inequality, exclusion and a lack of opportunity.
- Secure enough predictable funding for humanitarian assistance, especially for girls, boys, women and vulnerable groups.
The ministry also reported a one-on-one conversation with Rubio and meetings with delegations from the African Union, Poland, Turkey, Indonesia, India, France, South Korea, China, Canada, Australia, Argentina and Germany. Undersecretary Teresa Mercado Pérez, Mexico's G20 sherpa, was part of the Mexican delegation.
The two statements cover only what the Mexican side said. They give no details of the talk with Rubio and no reaction from other delegations to Velasco's remarks on the trade pact.
The USMCA is under review, and the United States, host of the G20 this year, is Mexico's counterpart in that process. In a Senate appearance in mid-October, Velasco said the government wants to keep the review of the pact separate from political and security issues, the Senate said in a statement.
