North American Governments Prepare Plan to Reopen Region's Auto Industry

• The Government of Mexico will be emphatic in protecting workers' health and will ensure that the reopening is orderly, gradual and cautious.
• The joint effort will benefit all three nations, ensuring a positive balance between public health and the reactivation of sectors of the economy.

The Mexican government is working closely with the U.S. and Canadian governments to establish the criteria, guidelines, protocols and conditions that will allow us to successfully move towards reopening the productive activities of the auto industry in North America.

The industry is important to the economy for many reasons, and is a key source of employment in North America. In Mexico alone, close to a million people are employed in this sector. The automotive industry is particularly important due to the size, geographic reach and length of the supply chains that link many suppliers of all sizes in all three countries.

There are health-related challenges to reopening the auto industry, and the governments of the three countries are designing a coordinated strategy that will prioritize public health during the current pandemic. In Mexico, the government will be particularly emphatic in protecting the health of workers, their families and their communities, which is why the authorities involved will ensure the reopening is orderly, gradual and cautious.

The reopening plan will take into account the diversity and complexities in the region, and the fact that each country has areas and locations with different health conditions, degrees of spread of COVID-19, demographic characteristics, and risks and vulnerabilities in the population, and local public health systems with varying capacities for responding to the emergency.

Until the plan is operational, the auto industry in Mexico and its supply chains must comply with the suspension of activities mandated by the General Health Council.

The Mexican government is firmly committed to contributing to a trinational solution that coordinates and synchronizes our production processes, in the understanding that by protecting the health of the population we guarantee that companies will be able to continue operating optimally in the medium- and long-term.

The governments of Mexico, Canada and the United States will make more information about the reopening plan public in the coming days.  Our trinational cooperation will allow the plan to be based on the scientific evidence and best practices shared by the public health agencies of all three countries. Our collaborative effort will also help determine how other nonessential activities should return to normal in Mexico. The joint effort will benefit all three nations by ensuring a positive balance between public health and the reactivation of sectors of the economy.