MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday he would be seeking to reach agreements with the United States ahead of a meeting with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry amid a dispute over Mexico’s efforts to its change energy laws.
“I hope it’s going to be a very good meeting because we’re going to seek agreements,” Lopez Obrador told a regular news conference ahead of his scheduled talks on Thursday with Kerry, who is in Mexico City with a group of U.S. energy sector executives.
“We’re not taking an intransigent position, we want to have good relations with the United States government and with entrepreneurs from the United States,” the president added.
Lopez Obrador said he would be explaining why his government was pushing legislation to strengthen the country’s state-run energy companies and noted the conflict in Ukraine showed the benefit of having control over one’s national energy resources.
“The state cannot fail to comply with its social responsibility,” the president said.
Still, the steps to bolster national power company the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) at the expense of private companies have alarmed many of Mexico’s longstanding diplomatic allies.
Kerry is visiting for the second time in two months. Last month he said he had urged Lopez Obrador to ensure his plan to boost state control of the power market does not breach the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade pact.
Lopez Obrador said provided companies in Mexico had permission to operate, their contracts would be respected. He momentarily appeared to suggest that they might have to operate under new terms if his reforms passed, but was not explicit.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; Writing by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
