The competition derived from Mexico‘s nearshoring, especially with the United States, Vietnam and Canada, will not be easy, said Alicia Bárcena, Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

«A great competition is going to come with the United States, because the United States is also trying to attract many companies from Asia Pacific and Europe. And we in Mexico have to take advantage of this opportunity, because it is going to be a short opportunity that is not going to be easy, if we don’t know how to take advantage of it,» she said at the inauguration of the Twenty-ninth Mexican Foreign Trade Congress in Mexico City.

Nearshoring is defined as nearby relocation and refers to the practice of moving business operations to a nearby country.

Bárcena also commented: «We are coordinating very well; but we have to do it quickly, because there are countries that are going to come after us, such as Vietnam. The United States has something called the CHIPS Act, to which Mexico is a party.  

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 aims to attract investment in domestic semiconductor manufacturing to improve U.S. competitiveness and innovation and bring the entire semiconductor ecosystem back to the U.S. to mitigate future supply chain disruptions.

This law provides some US$280 billion in new funding to boost domestic semiconductor research and manufacturing in the United States.

Nearshoring

Bárcena urged companies to participate as soon as possible in the dynamics generated by the relocation to North America.

«Mexico is in fashion in the world, because we have many advantages: we are a zone of peace; we are in an extraordinary geographical location, because we have access to the sea through the Atlantic, through the Pacific, we have a border with the United States, the border with the south; and we have a great variety of natural resources,» she said at the inauguration of the Twenty-ninth Congress of Mexican Foreign Trade, in Mexico City.

Bárcena said that this idea of the President of Mexico to develop the southeast has been important because there is enormous interest, for example, in the Transoceanic Corridor. «That one I think is becoming an attraction because it is finally going to be a first-rate inter-oceanic crossing,» she said.