Trump’s Trade Tactics Backfire in Mexico

By Mary Anastasia O’Grady. Excerpts:

"the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced Nafta, weakened protections that U.S. investors have against a “taking” by the Mexican government through indirect expropriation, forcing them also to seek protection under other treaties. Canadian investors also lost some investor protections under USMCA, but they retain them under the Trans-Pacific Partnership"

"Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He covets a piece of land and a port on the Yucatán Peninsula belonging to the largest American producer of construction aggregates—mainly crushed stone, sand and gravel. AMLO, as the Mexican president is known, doesn’t want to pay for the multibillion-dollar operation belonging to Alabama-based Vulcan Materials Co. Instead, for two years, he has prohibited Vulcan from using its property, which is an indirect expropriation."

"Vulcan’s troubles are exacerbated by weaker investor rights under the USMCA. News reports now say the Mexican government is close to blocking Vulcan’s use of the property permanently by declaring the site a natural protected area."

"Mr. López Obrador and his Morena party surrogates have already violated Mexico’s commitments to continental free trade and investment in other industries, including notable discrimination in energy."

"Mexico’s offer of $350 million for the land doesn’t include the value of Vulcan’s business."

"It can be no coincidence that the Vulcan land Mr. López Obrador wants is convenient to an AMLO vanity project known as the “Mayan train.” But it’s a bit rich to use environmental protection as a pretext to go after the company, when the government tore up pristine Yucatán jungles to build the railroad. AMLO has also taken to repeating a pledge, in private and public, that Vulcan will never again operate in Mexico."