Senate commissions concluded their analysis of the 30 chapters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and agreed to take the approval process to its final stages, despite the promise by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that the United States will withdraw from the treaty when he takes office.
In the ninth public session to analyze the TPP, Presidents of the Foreign Relations Commission and the Asia-Pacific Foreign Relations Commission Gabriela Cuevas Barrón and Teófilo Torres Corzo, respectively, agreed that their goal is to debate the commercial integration of Mexico and find out what advantages it will bring.
Cuevas Barrón, a member of the National Action Party (PAN), said that it is important to take into account the fact that Mexico is a party to 46 free trade agreements, but focuses 80 percent of its exports on one, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
She argued that Mexico should open itself to other markets, including Asia-Pacific markets.
“The time has come to look at our finances, to define where we are and where we need to go,” she said. “It is the time to prepare ourselves for any scenario, to work and build the good scenarios, but to be ready, also, for those that could be the worst.”
Torres Corzo, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said that the Senate will continue with the approval and ratification processes of the TPP no matter what Trump decides to do.
“It is our duty to continue the legislative process,” he said. “After it gets sent to commissions, the legislative process needs to continue forward, whether it goes into effect or not. But, we need to finish it.”
