What Mexico’s New President Means for North American Sourcing

The country’s incoming new leader is seen as a real boon for nearshoring sourcing.

When Claudia Sheinbaum takes office on October 1 as the new president of Mexico, it will mark the first woman president of the country, not to mention its first physicist and first Jewish person to hold the office.

If those are new, what may not be is Mexico’s commitment to increase its nearshoring capabilities for North American trade.  Sheinbaum is considered the protégé of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has been a leading advocate of more trade between Mexico and the U.S., according to Morgan Stanley Latin American economist Fernando D. Sedano.

“We are halfway through our first wave of nearshoring,”Sedano said in a recent interview. “Any future waves would require the establishment of new, more strategic manufacturing ecosystems in IT hardware, batteries and renewable energy, and investors are likely to wait for policy certainty as it pertains to key infrastructure and longer-term policy alignment with key partners.”

Jorge Gonzalez Henrichsen, co-CEO of outsourcing firm The Nearshore Co., said in the same report, nearshoring could benefit from a Sheinbaum administration because she “may not feel compelled to play politics, but rather focus on ‘getting things done.

“When it comes to nearshoring, what ‘getting things done’ means is: build infrastructure, allow private investment in the energy sector, raise the level of education in public education [and] promote the rule of law,” Henrichsen said in the interview.

In another report on her incoming administration, onIndustryweek.com. the news website said, “Claudia Sheinbaum has given clear signals that she will maintain and strengthen support for the manufacturing sector and its relationship with the United States. In her speeches on the campaign trail and in her position as the election winner, she has highlighted the importance of foreign investment and the relocation of production chains(nearshoring) as opportunities to also improve social welfare in Mexico.”

Industryweek.com said that in 2023 when she was mayor of Mexico City, she participated in a “nearshoring” forum, of the discussion “The City and Transformation”, where she stated that foreign investment must translate into decent jobs and fair wages. She stressed the need for these investments to benefit the population, particularly young people, to ensure a promising future for the country.