For Mexico’s Sheinbaum, the race is on to harness nearshoring
Mexico to take off as a manufacturing mecca. US-China tensions have opened the door for an export surge. Companies are lining up for power permits in once-barren areas. Bidding wars are breaking out for industrial space.
The country, however, is still waiting for a cascade of foreign investment to bolster its economy.
Even as Mexico surpassed China to become the top exporter of goods to the US last year, the country’s economic growth is slowing — and the promise of so-called nearshoring has yet to be fully fulfilled. Some of that stems from companies awaiting the outcome of the presidential election to the north and its effect on trade policy. But it also reflects long-running challenges that have held back the Latin American nation from becoming a bigger force, from electricity shortages to political turbulence.
“It’s things like not having access to affordable, consistent, clean energy,” said Shannon O’Neil, senior vice president at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Globalisation Myth. “It’s ongoing insecurity. And it’s the political uncertainty that’s been introduced into the business climate.”
New President Claudia Sheinbaum wants to make sure that Mexico doesn't squander its moment. The environmental engineer-turned-politician campaigned on boosting infrastructure development and supporting nearshoring — the trend of companies setting up industrial space in Mexico to have closer access to the US market. But her party pushed forward one of the biggest judicial overhauls the nation has ever
