On the Three Amigos Summit and questions over political support in the U.S. for Trans-Pacific Partnership talks.
"The most important thing is to strengthen this project—that at least my government is very dedicated to—of making North America a great center of competitiveness. And that this concept be fully shared by the three governments. This means working on projects of bilateral or trilateral cooperation, to intensify our trade. Today, we're the U.S.'s second-biggest partner; some 14% of its exports come to Mexico. What the U.S. sells to Mexico is almost equal to what it sells to the entire European Union.
In addition to the values that we all share, there are many issues that we'll discuss, such as improving our human capital, increase student exchange, work on infrastructure projects to have safer borders, similar requirements, and show the commitment of the three countries to go beyond of what we have accomplished over the past 20 years since the free-trade agreement was signed.
On Mexico's recent bill to open the oil industry:
"The energy reform is aimed at boosting our competitiveness, to boost productivity. The idea is to have cheaper energy for Mexicans, to bring in investment that will create jobs. If we didn't do it, we'd lose competitiveness against other countries, including the U.S., which has achieved a much greater energy capability. Mexico can't fall behind."
On Mexico's economy
"We expect Mexico´s economy to grow 3.9% this year. That's the forecast submitted to Congress. It represents an improvement from last year. It really wasn't what we wanted, but last year´s slowdown was primarily due to two factors: First, the economic recovery in the U.S. wasn't as strong as we expected, and that affected the dynamism of our own exports. Second, the change of administration in Mexico…and the pace of public-spending changes. During the change of administration, spending tends to be weighted toward the second half of the year.
On the drug war
There has been a decline in the number of murders and robberies, and unfortunately…in some states an increase in kidnapping and extortion. We had warned this could happen as a consequence of some drug gangs being dismantled, so that some of the members who aren't captured probably engaged in this kind of activity. We're stepping up our antikidnap strategy and are setting up a new unit dedicated to this purpose.
We divided the country into five regions to create a localized strategy for each one and not a one-size-fits-all strategy for the whole country. This has led to greater cooperation with state authorities and real results. There are regions and cities in the country that were seen to have terrible problems of violence that today have a different reality, like Ciudad Juárez and Monterrey. There are other areas, like Guerrero and Michoacan, where we have boosted the presence of the state, where we need to work with the people on a permanent basis to regain control of territory. But, clearly, the problem is starting to become focalized, and is not a nationwide problem.
On the other hand, we're also working on our institutions. We are working to fully implement oral trials by 2016. Congress has now created a single, nationwide criminal code that will create a single criminal-justice system.
In the case of the army, they have played a very important role, accompanying civilian forces. What we want in the medium-term—I can't say we'll do this in the short-term because it depends on how the violence plays out,—is for the army to return to the barracks at some point, and that the state have reliable civilian authorities.
Source: WSJ
