July 18, 2022

The US-Mexico agenda for migration and energy

topic:	Economic Opportunity
located:	Mexico, USA
editor:	Ellen Nemitz

After declining to attend the Summit of the Americas, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador - best known by the acronym AMLO - was hosted by the US president Joe Biden at the White House on 12 July. The meeting sparked criticism, even before any words were said, for being held just one month after the Summit and the Mexican president’s polemical absence. Notwithstanding, Biden set it clear right from the beginning of the conversation that the relations between the two nations are "vital to achieving our goals of everything from the fight against COVID-19, to continuing to grow our economies, to strengthening our partnerships and addressing migration as a shared hemispheric challenge."

Migration was, indeed, a core issue at the discussions, precisely when the Supreme Court allowed Biden to end a rude asylum-seeker policy remaining from Donald Trump's previous administration. López Obrador stood up for migration as beneficial for economic growth and asked Biden to "orderly" allow the "arrival in the United States of workers, technicians, and professionals of different disciplines." 

In addition to migration, the agenda of last week's meeting was mainly centred on the energy crisis and the bilateral relations for boosting local industrial production and economic growth. After a long historic preamble referencing the Roosevelt administration’s policies towards Mexico and the economic challenges of World War II, López Obrador proposed a series of agreements to be carried out by the neighbour countries. 

One of the most stressed topics by analysts and the media were the gas prices - or rather the way AMLO used gas prices as a political tool by making gas stations crossing the border available for US drivers, as well as offering gas pipelines for energy production in the northern neighbour. The Mexican president also proposed a partnership for a more friendly tariff policy, "eliminating regulations, regulatory measures, and tedious procedures or red tape in terms of trade related to foodstuffs and other products so that we can lower prices for consumers in both our countries." In the same direction, he described China as the "factory of the world" and suggested a way of making North America self-sufficient by investing in local production and avoiding importations from other places.  

The minor details of each president's behaviour were scrutinised as well. The long lasting discourse of the Mexican president, for example, was a reason for comments such as the one from White House reporter Eli Stokols, who stated that AMLO was "offering Biden a lengthy soliloquy about the New Deal, gas prices and opportunities for greater economic collaboration." Likewise, Biden's interruption of his counterpart's speech to praise the camera person's abilities and AMLO's position of focusing on gas prices - compared to the opposition's rhetoric in the US - were also a target of critics. 

Although largely commented and scrutinised, the AMLO-Biden meeting will only just produce real advances with hard work. The Taipan Magazine compared it with a tango: the two partners must be willing to follow the rhythm, otherwise the dance may be ruined. After all, people's wellbeing and rights should stand as AMLO and Biden's priority - regardless of political roughness and ego trips.

Photo by Barbara Zandoval

Call to Action

Casa Del Migrante Tijuana shelters stranded migrants

Support now