President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ruled out on Thursday that his proposal to reform the electricity sector in Mexico and that must still be submitted for discussion and vote in Congress, affects the north american trade agreement (T-MEC), as officials in Washington and elsewhere have warned.
Thus, López Obrador responded to a question about the statements of the US special envoy for the climate, John Kerry, who said on Wednesday that he urged the president to guarantee that the planned changes in the electric sector do not violate the treaty.
López Obrador met Wednesday with Kerry, who made a visit to address, among other issues, a controversial reform of the local electricity sector, which has caused concern in U.S Y Canada since it could affect investments from both countries and would favor the state company CFE.
“It was a kind, respectful conversation (…) We made it clear to him that we are in favor of clean energy and against dirty business and we are going to convince and persuade that it is in everyone’s interest not to (…) destroy the CFE,” said López Obrador in his morning conference.
“The treaty is not affected at all (…), the T-MEC has nothing to do with corruption and that was what we told Kerry. We are going to comply and we always want to have a good relationship with U.S (…) We are not going to fight with the United States government, but we do not accept corruption,” he said.
The constitutional reform proposed by López Obrador prioritizes the state electricity company, CFE, over private actors, something that has raised criticism from various sectors that assure that the change would undermine the investment in clean energy.