Former Mexico City Finance Official to Be Named to Key Trade Job

(Bloomberg) --

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The administration of Mexico’s incoming President Claudia Sheinbaum plans to name a former top finance official from the nation’s capital for a key role negotiating trade ahead of the scheduled review of the country’s agreement with the US and Canada.

Sheinbaum and incoming Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard plan to name Luis Rosendo Gutierrez Romano as deputy secretary for international trade, according to people familiar with the plan, who asked not to be named without permission to speak publicly. In that role, Gutierrez Romano is poised to lead an area responsible for the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the four-year-old pact that’s up for evaluation and potential changes in 2026.

Representatives for Sheinbaum and Ebrard didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Gutierrez Romano served as treasurer of Mexico City when Ebrard was mayor of the nation’s capital from 2006 to 2012. In that job, he worked for then local Finance Minister Mario Delgado, another close Ebrard ally, who most recently led the ruling Morena party and from Tuesday will be Sheinbaum’s education minister. Earlier in his career, Gutierrez Romano worked at the Trade Ministry, now known as the Economy Ministry.

The USMCA was negotiated and signed under US President Donald Trump and in 2020 took the place of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement that he had condemned. Under its terms, the deal must be evaluated after six years to address conflicts and possibly update its rules. Since the pact took effect, the nations have clashed on topics ranging from rules for car production to Mexico’s nationalist energy and corn policies, as well as its treatment of foreign investors.

--With assistance from Alex Vasquez.

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