• PROPOSAL: US private sector groups are warning Mexican Senators that a rush to pass this week a new film industry bill imposing a 15 percent local content quota in movie theaters and online streaming platforms runs afoul Mexico’s trade obligations and risks multi-million investments.
• ALARM: Authored by Senate majority leader Ricardo Monreal, a key ally of president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the bill is scheduled to be voted out of committee on Monday. An umbrella group of 19 US private sector associations says it contravenes several provisions in the USMCA trade deal.
• BREACH: “It just doesn’t feel to many of us here in the United States that Mexico is taking its USMCA obligations seriously at all. The effort to rush this proposal through…is illustrative of that”, said Brian Pomper, executive director of the Alliance for Trade Enforcement (AFTE) about the bill.
• INVESTMENT: In January, U.S. streaming giant Netflix announced a US $300 million investment to locally produce 50 shows in Mexico. Seattle-based Amazon Prime Video said it will begin producing up to 15 shows in Mexico annually. Under the bill, these shows would not count as local content.
