MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier said on Thursday she was stepping down, depriving Mexico of one of its key trade negotiators in the midst of a major dispute with the United States and Canada centering on energy.
Clouthier, a scion of a powerful political family who became economy minister early last year, read aloud a letter announcing her decision alongside President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. She did not explain why she was quitting.
Mexico’s Economy Ministry has been leading dispute resolution negotiations with the United States and Canada, which are upset about Lopez Obrador’s energy policies.
Washington and Ottawa in July demanded the talks, arguing Lopez Obrador’s policies breached a regional trade deal and discriminated against U.S. and Canadian investors by giving priority to state-run Mexican energy companies.
Clouthier, who appeared visibly moved while reading the letter, said it was time for her to step down from “the major league” and cheer on the president’s ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) from the sidelines.
“We respect her decision,” Lopez Obrador said. “We insisted she stay, but she’s a woman with convictions.”
A replacement will be announced on Friday, he said.
A former congresswoman and onetime member of the opposition center-right National Action Party (PAN), Clouthier later joined forces with the leftist Lopez Obrador and played a major role in helping to run his campaign for president in 2018.
Clouthier assumed her post after Lopez Obrador’s previous economy minister, Graciela Marquez, left after two years to join Mexico’s national statistics agency.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry and Sarah Morland; Editing by Dave Graham and Jonathan Oatis)
