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Floor Speech

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Mr. HAGERTY. Madam President, I am here today to discuss worrying developments in Mexico--one of the United States most important international partners and our neighbor to the south.

The nearly 2,000-mile border that our nations share, both binds us together and presents a series of challenges, including illegal immigration, drug control, and human trafficking.

But as we work through these difficult issues, our robust economic relationship has provided a firm foundation to strengthen and stabilize our efforts with an eye toward the future.

The innovative U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement--or USMCA, as it is called--has deepened the connections between our two economies, such that Mexico is now one of our largest and most strategic trading partners.

However, actions over the past year by the government of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, better known as AMLO, have weakened that bond and are threatening the economic and diplomatic ties of our two nations.

Through increasingly arbitrary and aggressive moves against companies based here in the United States and their lawfully owned assets in Mexico, the Mexican Government has abused its permitting and regulatory powers in ways that violate the letter and the spirit of our trade agreements and the special relationship that exists between our two countries. These decisions directly impact critical sectors of the U.S. economy, from agriculture to energy and mining, from transportation to tourism.

These capricious actions, which are falsely labeled as ``reforms,'' risk substantially undermining confidence in the commercial rule of law in Mexico, and these actions also risk jeopardizing the essential economic relations in North America.

Further, these actions likely violate our trade agreements by abrogating contracts, stripping investors of value, and eliminating private competition and oversight, thereby sending a clear message to U.S. capital markets that Mexico is no longer safe nor profitable for investing.

Earlier this month, AMLO even threatened to jail political opponents and investors who stand in his way, desperately attempting to impose a state-centered, anti-free-market agenda. If not quickly corrected, these actions risk choking off the economic relationship between our two nations.

Many important supply chains stretch across the U.S.-Mexico border, supporting millions of good jobs and making both countries more attractive for capital investment. This is certainly true for my home State of Tennessee. Because of that success, I have advocated for further expanding the integrated North American supply chain for critical industries as a better and more stable alternative to manufacturing and exporting from communist China.

Utilizing the successes of the USMCA as the backbone for a renewed vision of North American competitiveness would benefit both American and Mexican prosperity, as well as both of our nations' national security. It would also better align the economic strategies and national interests of our two countries.

But without a basic respect for private property and the rule of law, that mutually beneficial progress will not happen. In fact, failing to protect private property and the rule of law will inevitably lead to the disintegration of economic ties.

Therefore, I urge President Lopez Obrador to reverse course before more damage is done. Instead, we should be looking for opportunities to work together to attract investment and unlock economic opportunity that is presented by the global rebalancing of supply chains away from communist China. Let's seize the opportunity together rather than damage our shared interests for short-term political gains.

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