The personal care industry is an example of how integrated the economies of North America are: many of the natural ingredients that are used in the elaboration of moisturizing creams, shampoos or makeup are obtained in Mexico or Latin America. Then, these components become semiterminated products in the United States or Canada. Finally, they are packaged again in Mexico, from where they are exported. For this sector, a tariff increase, such as the promised by the administration of Donald Trump, would represent an increase in imponderable prices. «It is a considerable threat and we are aware of that, both here and our peers in Canada and the United States,» explains Carlos Barbuza, president of Canipepe, the camera that groups companies in the branch, such as Colgate or Revlon. «It is a complicated scenario. As a company, the option is to start diversifying other markets. As an industry, the United States is our main commercial partner, both in imports and exports,» he adds, listing that last year his affiliates sold 55% of their production to the United States, valued at about 4,150 million dollars. «The tariffs had left our vocabulary, but they have returned,» he says shrugged. The constant changes of their neighbor are leading Mexico to rethink their role as maquiladora and evaluate new industrial potentialities, in order to supply their internal demand and reduce their dependence on imports. But also to search for new export markets, a project that both the Government of Claudia Sheinbaum and the private sector recognize as ambitious. A new scenario that will test the value chains, the dialogue between the public and private sector and the complex operate of the factories that assemble from cars to appliances. Vidal Llerenas Morales, Undersecretary of Industry and Commerce, points out in an interview that, for the Government, it was time to make “industrial policy”, invoking a concept related to the post -war reconstruction program known as the Marshall Plan. «Mexico is going to continue exporting to the United States, but it would also have to open to other sectors. For example, produce more cars for the national market and for others that do not consume what we now produce, which are basically high -end cars with combustion engine for the United States,» he exemplifies, adding potentialities to increase the local production of drugs, clothing, footwear or medical equipment. «Electromovility is an opportunity looking at Europe and Latin America»,
The inconvenience of time
But to achieve a project of this magnitude, more than a sexennium will be required. In some incipient sectors, such as aeronautics or semiconductors, the panorama is to achieve a certain degree of maturity within a decade. From the Ministry of Economy, commanded by Marcelo Ebrard, a former presidential candidate, argue that the attraction of foreign capital is underway, although without revealing new injections for the second half of the year. The Mexico Plan, the brand new road map of the president, includes an investment, national and foreign portfolio, of 277,000 million dollars and the attraction of some 2,000 companies that want to settle in the country, particularly in areas baptized as poles of economic development for well -being. “There are two types of development poles that are being raised: in more isolated places and further south of the country, with higher tax incentives and where there are higher levels of poverty. And also the development poles where offshore can be made. If in Guadalajara and in Monterrey very technological industry is made, or in Querétaro or Tijuana, why not do it in Durango or in Altamira. work, ”adds Llerenas. For Isaac Cruz, analyst at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), the strategy is sending “encouraging” signals to the market. However, doubts persist about how the objectives will be specified. Mexico does not have the environment resolved in spinal areas such as water and energy generation, talent incubation or legal and citizen security. «Economic and commercial integration with the United States is a reality, it is very intense and represents an important source of income for the country, so it is worth following betting on that relationship. But it is true that you do not have to depend entirely on it,» says the researcher.
Made in Mexico and the T-MEC
As part of its strategy, the Government has relaunched its brand made in Mexico, a program that includes training and financing with public funds to encourage local production. The image of the resilient eagle and brave of the Mexican shield looking forward, reproduced in the platform logo, has also become a banner of pride for the gentilicio. A token around which local industrialists can congregate in moments of high uncertainty. «Mexico is not only beautiful for its beaches and crafts, but as a modern Mexico that is making airplanes, electronic devices, semiconductors and that can produce what it consumes and does not have to be importing so many things,» says Bárbara Botello, a career policy that is in charge of the program, from its dispatch decorated with the logo and maps of the Republic that outline plans. Looking towards the future, now the time of the results comes while doubts about this renewed industrial policy persist. And in this interim, the country also prepares for the review of the commercial agreement with the United States and Canada, which – in theory – protects most of its exchange from the abrupt imposition of tariffs. The T-MEC will be in force until 2036, so if in the review an agreement will not be reached, the route is to keep it as drafted. Although nothing is written in stone. «Many people expect the review to become a renegotiation for the context in which we are,» says Barbuza, the union representative of the Mexican personal care industry. «We are preparing to have a propositive agenda and not play defensive, because the game of putting barriers is losing-perder.»
