With the signature of nine organizations of the powerful American IP, a letter reached the hands of the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, in which they asked him to intercede with the president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, to stop the constitutional reforms that are on the waiting list to be debated in the next legislature.
The alert speaks of something very real: the violation of the agreements already established in the T-MEC.
This point is another of the ‘irritating’, rough points that strain the commercial relationship between the partners, mainly between us and the United States.
A few weeks ago, at a forum on the review of the USMCA, Marcelo Ebrard, the future Secretary of the Economy in charge of revising the treaty, said that: “we will negotiate from a position of strength, not weakness.” Unfortunately, there are more and more ingredients that make the Mexican position weak.
To argue with Ebrard’s optimism, as of July 2026, Mexico has more cases as an ‘accused party’ among the three partners: 56 cases versus 15 from Canada and 14 from the United States.
What worries companies in the industrial, chemical, technological, medical, mining and energy sectors? That the reforms that begin next September (announced by AMLO and ratified by Claudia Sheinbaum) will not only affect the commitments signed in 2020, but will also reduce the attraction of investments to Mexico and generate an environment of loss of competitiveness for the entire North American bloc at a time of geopolitical uncertainty.
Adding judicial reform to the list of irritants will only turn the review into a potential renegotiation, especially if the next US president is Donald Trump.
“Among our main concerns are amendments to weaken or even eliminate several autonomous regulatory agencies, such as the IFT, which fires the expert professionals who serve on them; to give preferential treatment to state-owned companies over private sector companies; to weaken investor protection; to completely ban sales of American agricultural products and certain types of foreign investment such as open-pit mining,” reads the letter dated August 19.
These points are some of the famous “irritants” with which Mexico comes to review its trajectory in the first six years of the T-MEC. Making the change that the federal administration intends will undoubtedly generate much controversy (not to mention violation of agreements).
The IFT is one of the most visible points linked to the ‘transformation’ of autonomous entities.
Chapter 18 of the Treaty deals with the telecommunications sector and in its article entitled “Telecommunications Regulatory Bodies”, indicates that “each party will ensure that its telecommunications regulatory body is independent…” and specifies that “for Mexico, the telecommunications regulatory body is autonomous from the Executive Branch; it is independent in its decisions and operation…”
Added to this point is another factor, which is the claim of low competition that has been achieved in this sector, where the predominant operator (América Móvil) maintains more than 60 percent of the market despite the arrival and deployment of the competition.
If the fact that the faculties and workers of the IFT are moved to the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport is fulfilled, this only guarantees the technical side requested in the Treaty, but not the competence side and even less the autonomy.
Companies, associations (such as those in the letter to Blinken), unions and all players who feel affected by measures taken against the USMCA have, starting in January of next year, the chance to express their opinions and proposals to the commissions of the new American Congress that will be in charge of revising the treaty in July 2026.
The powerful investment and export presence of China in our country, the ban on genetically modified corn, energy policy and now judicial reform and the elimination of autonomous bodies are the swords of Damocles hanging over an agreement that moves (like no other economic bloc in the world) 3.6 million dollars per minute between the three partners.
