MEXICO CITY: Ministers from the US, Canada and Mexico meet on Monday to wrap up the latest round of NAFTA talks under the shadow of US President Donald Trump’s proposed steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
Trump is expected to finalize the tariffs — 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum — later in the week, posing a tough challenge for US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo.
The Mexican and Canadian ministers are likely to press Trump’s trade envoy on whether their countries will be excluded from the blanket tariffs.
“I expect it to be front and center” at the meeting, said Kevin Brady, the Republican chairman of the US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, which oversees US trade policy.
Officials have so far been evasive when asked how the three nations can continue trying to update the North American Free Trade Agreement at a time when the US president is about to take a highly protectionist measure.
Brady led a delegation of US lawmakers to Mexico City to press officials on the need to conclude the talks, which have unnerved financial markets worried about the possibility that the North American supply chain could be disrupted.
Speaking on Sunday, Brady said all fairly-traded steel should be excluded from the tariffs. US stocks fell sharply on Thursday on fears of a looming trade war after Trump, a Republican, announced the planned tariffs.
The NAFTA talks are going slowly and the Mexico City round — the seventh of eight planned sets of negotiations — produced little of substance.
Eight days of talks in Mexico’s capital failed to make headway on new rules governing the content of products made in North America, which has been one of the most contentious issues in the talks.
The US negotiator charged with overseeing the so-called rules of origin unexpectedly returned to Washington for consultations early on and did not return. Talks on the matter will be rescheduled before the expected next proper NAFTA round in Washington in early April.
Still, Brady said he was impressed with the progress made during the week, emphasizing it was important to finish negotiating a modern, pro-growth agreement that would boost manufacturing and jobs.
US Representative Roger Marshall, a Republican who traveled with Brady to Mexico, said meetings during the week had closed chapters related to chemicals, communications and anti-corruption efforts.
“I am very optimistic,” Marshall told reporters after briefings from US trade officials.
Canada’s chief negotiator Steve Verheul said: “For the week we do have successes we can point (to), but we still have got a bit more to do.”
Dave Solverson, a former president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said the NAFTA region could not afford a trade war, especially when attempting to renegotiate the 24-year-old trade deal.
US President Trump’s tariffs set to dominate final day of NAFTA talks
US President Trump’s tariffs set to dominate final day of NAFTA talks
‘The future is renewables,’ Indian energy minister tells World Economic Forum
- ‘In India, I can very confidently say, affordability (of renewables) is better than fossil fuel energy,’ says Pralhad Venkatesh Joshi during panel discussion
- Renewables are an increasingly important part of the energy mix and the technology is evolving rapidly, another expert says at session titled ‘Unstoppable March of Renewables?’
BEIRUT: “The future is renewables,” India’s minister of new and renewable energy told the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.
“In India, I can very confidently say, affordability (of renewables) is better than fossil fuel energy,” Pralhad Venkatesh Joshi said during a panel discussion titled “Unstoppable March of Renewables?”
The cost of solar power has has fallen steeply in recent years compared with fossil fuels, Joshi said, adding: “The unstoppable march of renewables is perfectly right, and the future is renewables.”
Indian authorities have launched a major initiative to install rooftop solar panels on 10 million homes, he said. As a result, people are not only saving money on their electricity bills, “they are also selling (electricity) and earning money.”
He said that this represents a “success story” in India in terms of affordability and “that is what we planned.”
He acknowledged that more work needs to be done to improve reliability and consistency of supplies, and plans were being made to address this, including improved storage.
The other panelists in the discussion, which was moderated by Godfrey Mutizwa, the chief editor of CNBC Africa, included Marco Arcelli, CEO of ACWA Power; Catherine MacGregor, CEO of electricity company ENGIE Group; and Pan Jian, co-chair of lithium-ion battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology.
Asked by the moderator whether she believes “renewables are unstoppable,” MacGregor said: “Yes. I think some of the numbers that we are now facing are just proof points in terms of their magnitude.
“In 2024, I think it was 600 gigawatts that were installed across the globe … in Europe, close to 50 percent of the energy was produced from renewables in 2024. That has tripled since 2004.”
Renewables are an increasingly important and prominent part of the energy mix, she added, and the technology is evolving rapidly.
“It’s not small projects; it’s the magnitude of projects that strikes me the most, the scale-up that we are able to deliver,” MacGregor said.
“We are just starting construction in the UAE, for example. In terms of solar size it’s 1.5 gigawatts, just pure solar technology. So when I see in the Middle East a round-the-clock project with just solar and battery, it’s coming within reach.
“The technology advance, the cost, the competitiveness, the size, the R&D, the technology behind it and the pace is very impressive, which makes me, indeed, really say (renewables) is real. It plays a key role in, obviously, the energy demand that we see growing in most of the countries.
“You know, we talk a lot about energy transition, but for a lot of regions now it is more about energy additions. And renewables are indeed the fastest to come to market, and also in terms of scale are really impressive.”
Mutizwa asked Pan: “Are we there yet, in terms of beginning to declare mission accomplished? Are renewables here to stay?”
“I think we are on the road but (its is) very promising,” Pan replied. There is “great potential for future growth,” he added, and “the technology is ready, despite the fact that there are still a lot of challenges to overcome … it is all engineering questions. And from our perspective, we have been putting in a lot of resources and we are confident all these engineering challenges will be tackled along the way.”
Responding to the same question, Arcelli said: “Yes, I think we are beyond there on power, but on other sectors we are way behind … I would argue today that the technology you install by default is renewables.
“Is it a universal truth nowadays that renewables are the cheapest?” asked Mutizwa.
“It’s the cheapest everywhere,” Arcelli said.
