Mexico acknowledges Canada's concerns about a Chinese auto plant, but says none exists
Mexico's president has acknowledged that Canada is concerned about reports of a Chinese company's auto plant in Mexico, but she says it does not exist
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president acknowledged Thursday that Canada is concerned about reports of a Chinese company’s plan to build an auto plant in Mexico, but she said it does not currently exist.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said she talked recently to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and that he assured her he did not support excluding Mexico from the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
But Trudeau said later Thursday that while having Mexico in the agreement “is my first choice,” he is “leaving all doors open” on the future of the trilateral trade pact.
“Pending decisions and choices that Mexico has made, we may have to look at other options,” Trudeau said at an appearance in Canada.
On Wednesday, provincial leaders in Canada called on Trudeau to negotiate a bilateral trade deal with the United States that would exclude Mexico.
“The prime minister does not agree with taking Mexico out of the treaty, he told me so clearly,” Sheinbaum said following the bilateral meeting the two leaders held during this week's G20 summit.
“He asked me about a Chinese company's auto plant, and if there was a plant in Mexico,” she said, and responded that the company's only North American plant was in California.
That was an apparent reference to Chinese carmaker BYD, which had reportedly been planning to build a plant in Mexico but hasn't done so yet.
Trudeau said “there have been real and genuine concerns raised about Chinese investment into Mexico."
Politicians in the United States and Canada have expressed concerns that under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, Chinese
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