The Mexpat Dispatch | Jan. 23

5 economy + business stories from the national conversation

Welcome to The Mexpatriate.

This year, the World Economic Forum in Davos may have generated as many gasps, long-winded speeches and yes, even fashion fodder, as we’ll see at the Oscars. President Trump lurched from bored to Board of Peace, Canadian PM Mark Carney pronounced the comatose “rules-based” global order dead at the scene and French President Emmanuel “Maverick” Macron’s speech was drowned out by his sunglasses.

President Sheinbaum sent her lead business advisor Altagracia Gómez and Environment Secretary Alicia Bárcena, and there were a handful of Mexican CEOs in attendance. On Thursday, Sheinbaum hailed Carney’s “if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu” speech and said it was “very much in tune with these times.”

It’s a strange historical turn of events that it falls to Mexico—under the leadership of a nationalist leftist president who once protested NAFTA—to defend North American free trade. Since Carney’s decision to make trade with China free-ish in a “new strategic partnership” and Trump’s dismissals of the USMCA as “irrelevant,” Sheinbaum still holds out hope for its survival: “We believe it is in the interest of all three countries to maintain the trade agreement.”

Today’s letter is the first edition of “The Mexpat Dispatch.” Every Friday, I’ll cover five news stories grouped by category (economy + business, arts + culture, politics + law, or science + tech).