Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard traveled to Washington, D.C. today to speak at the 49th Washington Conference on the Americas, organized by the Council of the Americas. This year's conference, titled "Disruption and Transformation in the Americas," was held in a single day. Speakers included El Salvador’s President-elect Nayib Bukele; U.S. Vice President Mike Pence; Colombia’s Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez; Jim Carr, Canada's International Trade Diversification Minister, and others.
In his remarks, Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard explained the priorities of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration, by outlining four main goals: eradicating corruption from public life, reducing poverty and inequality, making the country grow more quickly and ensuring safety in Mexico.
Secretary Ebrard also said that the Mexico-United States relationship should continue to improve, which is possible when one accepts that "there is no point in weakening America in economic terms. Quite the opposite: it should grow in value and innovation."
The Council of the Americas is the premier international business organization whose members share a common commitment to economic and social development, open markets, the rule of law and democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere. The Council's membership consists of leading international companies representing a broad spectrum of sectors, including banking and finance, consulting services, consumer products, energy and mining, manufacturing, media, technology and transportation. Its main donors are Shell, BlackRock, PepsiCo, Cisco, FedEx, Microsoft, Pfizer, GM, Johnson & Johnson, Citigroup, MetLife, Moody's, Boeing, JP Morgan, Chevron, Scotiabank, ExxonMobil and Philip Morris.
The audience of the Council of the Americas in Washington DC is composed mainly of CEOs from companies in the area and government relations officers from companies with a presence in Washington, D.C. and investments in Mexico, in addition to politicians, lobbyists and diplomats in the city.