Former American Business Chamber president Larry Rubin. Photo: Facebook/Larry Rubin

By KELIN DILLON

Larry Rubin, former president and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico, advised caution to legislators before their approval of the outsourcing bill proposed by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). 

In an interview with Forbes México on Tuesday, Dec. 8, Rubin said that Mexico must take foreign investment seriously and proceed carefully on the issue of outsourcing. Otherwise, he said, foreign investors could seek to put their money elsewhere.

Rubin, who is also the president of the American Society of Mexico, warned that this legislation could lead Mexico to “become uncompetitive” in the global economy. He said that outsourcing is a common practice in First World  industrialized countries and the prevention of that would be “a step toward the Third World.”

Legislators “must bear in mind that foreign companies such as U.S. ones have opportunities to invest billions of dollars in different countries,” and that “Mexico is not the only one,” Rubin told El Universal, in a separate interview.

Rubin cautioned that prohibiting outsourcing could undermine this incentive for foreign investment in the country. 

Rubin appealed to legislators to consider the effect AMLO’s proposed bill could have on Mexico. Maintaining a positive business relationship with the United States could potentially attract “more than $400 billion” of investment into Mexico, leading to the creation of “more than 2.8 million new jobs that do not exist today,” he said.

The U.S. businessman recommended that the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) intercede in negotiating this legislation, due to its potential impact on foreign investment in Mexico. Rubin also highlighted the contradiction between the outsourcing bill and the Mexican government’s own role as the main user of outsourcing in the country.

As the debate on the outsourcing bill has been delayed until February, only time will tell if legislators heed Rubin’s words of caution.

…Dec. 11, 2020