When Mexicans elected a new president, they also selected their next chief negotiator to make tough choices with the United States on issues ranging from immigration and trade to fentanyl trafficking.
Mexicans voted overwhelmingly for Claudia Scheinbaum, winning more than 58 percent of the vote, giving her broad powers to govern Latin America’s second-largest economy and the United States’ top trading partner.
When Sheinbaum takes office on Oct. 1 after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador steps down, he will inherit a country rocked by slowing economic growth and organized crime-linked violence. He will also face a fractured relationship with the United States. Despite deep cross-border economic ties, the U.S.-Mexico relationship has been tested by shared challenges of global migration and drug trafficking.
“Both countries have suffered incredible failures in negotiating with each other,” said Tony Payan, director of the U.S.-Mexico Center at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “I think they need to get back to the negotiating table.”
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Americans may love “Taco Tuesdays” and vacations to Cancun, but the complexities of the U.S.-Mexico relationship are often forgotten amid marketing and political rhetoric. Mexico’s influence in the United States is visible everywhere.
Mexican oil is used in the Mexican-made auto parts that support jobs for American auto workers in Detroit, the windmill blades exported to America’s clean energy plants, the pacemakers that save the lives of American heart failure patients, and even the $15 avocado toast on restaurant menus across the country.
U.S. exports to Mexico include grain grown in the Midwest and natural gas extracted in Texas, while Mexico exports fruits and vegetables north, helping to keep food prices low at a time when U.S. inflation has been volatile.
China became America’s largest trading partner last year, pushing it into second place, and trade between the two neighbors now reaches about $800 billion a year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
But it’s a difficult relationship: Mexico is also a transit country for hundreds of thousands of migrants heading to the United States, frequently causing humanitarian crises at the U.S. border, and is a major source of fentanyl, which kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.
The United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, known as USMCA, which was negotiated during the Trump administration, is set to be renegotiated in 2026. U.S.-based business leaders are concerned that renegotiating the agreement will create uncertainty that could have a negative impact on the economies of both countries.
“Mexico is currently a major trading partner of the United States,” said Jennifer Aperti, director of the Texas-Mexico Center at Southern Methodist University. “To reopen something that’s just been negotiated is, quite frankly, a waste of time. Time is of the essence in business.”
Domingo Garcia, president of the U.S.-based League of Latin American Nationals, said in a statement he looked forward to “building bridges” with the Sheinbaum administration.
Garcia said that in past meetings, he found Scheinbaum “open, engaged and willing to listen and share ideas for moving forward. Mexicans are essential to the economic future of the United States and the robust vitality of our entire hemisphere. At the same time, we must consider our environmental and scientific efforts for the well-being of today and future generations.”
Turnout on Sunday was an estimated 60 percent, making it one of the largest elections in Mexican history. Around 100 million people were eligible to vote.
For the first time, Mexican citizens living in the United States were able to vote in person at 20 consulates across the country, including in Phoenix.
Contributor: Rafael Carranza, The Arizona Republic
