The Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, informed this Thursday that the Mexican government will reopen the Washington office of the Secretariat of Economy.

This trade representation office was closed at the beginning of 2023, along with the one Mexico had in Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Ebrard informed about the reopening of the trade representation office following a meeting he held with three senior U.S. officials at the White House.

There, Ebrard held private meetings with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and President’s Economic Advisor Kevin Hasset in Washington.

The main issue he discussed with U.S. officials was the 25% across-the-board tariff that U.S. President Donald Trump ordered to be imposed starting next March 4, after a one-month pause.

Washington Office

In 2019, the Ministry of Economy closed its Mexican trade representations in Uruguay, Canada, France, China, Japan and Belgium, as part of an austerity policy.

After leaving the meetings with Lutnick, Greer and Hasset, the Secretary of Economy said that they raised their concerns about the U.S. trade deficit and their intention to reduce their dependence on Asia.

In turn, Ebrard expressed Mexico’s concern about the imposition of U.S. tariffs, but added that he is happy because the dialogue has already begun and that he will “work hard on this relationship”.

For that dialogue, Ebrard will be traveling frequently to Washington.

He said he intends to “look for meeting points”.