How many brands of Chinese cars are there in Mexico? Chirey, JAC, MG Motorand those brought together by the company Motornation: Changan, BAIC and JMC They report their data in the reports of the Mexican Association of Automobile Distributors. But they are not the only ones.
There is Jetourowned by Chery Holdings. And we’re just talking about cars.
How many Chinese brands of smartphones do they exist? And what about screens, and tools?
Such a move put an individual not known for making loud statements on the defensive.
It was the Secretary of the Treasury, Rogelio Ramírez de la O, who in a ‘Trumpist’ style claimed that Mexico does not have reciprocal trade with China.
“That country is selling us, not buying us,” which warrants a review and protecting Mexico, he warned during a public event in San Luis Potosí.
What does “protecting ourselves” mean? Taxing imports? I hope not.
Such a measure would be paid for by you, who kindly read this text.
They will pay directly if they buy cars with a tariff, or if they decide on another one, they will do so when they buy another vehicle that is more expensive than cars from that Asian nation.
The neighbors were also scared. On May 14 of this year, the Joe Biden administration in the United States announced 100 percent tariffs on all electric vehicles from China.
Donald Trump, the current Republican candidate for the presidency of that country, has already warned that he will impose a similar penalty on the entry of the rest of the cars that cross the Pacific from there. He still needs to win, of course, but a victory for the Democrat Kamala Harris would not change the position of the United States much.
Perhaps they recently discussed something there with Ramírez de la O, who focused on a topic that is not common in his office.
Barriers, tariffs, penalties. This is the response that has so far emerged from nations that boast of having an advanced economy, to stop competition from the Chinese.
The latter are not an example to follow. Their government strengthens a dictatorship and reduces the democratic power of its population. It has also trampled on ecology in the desire to increase the size of its economy.
But in another sense, this generation has witnessed a reduction in Chinese poverty at a speed that no other nation has achieved.
The United States may have its own strategy, however bad it may be. But what will Mexico’s be, now that this country will have a new government at the end of the year? Will it blindly follow the binary position of its neighbors?
The country that grew the fastest among global powers was China and He did not do so through a policy of blocking foreign products.
It is true that there is no Google there, but Baidu, and that instead of WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram, there is Wechat. But Teslas and Apple iPhones sell in that country as easily as on this continent. Wow, China did not grow because it closed itself to the foreign market, on the contrary.
The key was to allow free trade, capture the technology of the companies that went to set up in that country, understand what they did and do it the same or better. That’s how BYD or Huawei cell phones came about.
What is worth thinking about is: What are we going to sell to the Chinese?
While the Secretary of the Treasury is putting measures in place, opportunities are opening up, for example, in services.
Do the Chinese already know which cities they can visit by travelling on the Maya Train? Is there a campaign to help tourists in Mandarin?
Not only in hotels and restaurants that pay so little that they only prolong the poverty of families. Are there doctors who speak Chinese? Are there campaigns, say, for haute couture or for Mexican architecture?
The next Secretary of the Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, would do well to make a list of opportunities and prepare Mexicans to serve clients from the Far East. That will be in the short term. In the long term, the key is in training and educating Mexicans.
Hopefully we will not limit ourselves to doing the easiest thing, which is imposing tariffs.
