LAREDO, Texas - Humberto Martinez Cantu, the president of INDEX Nacional, says his group is enjoying a much closer relationship with President Sheinbaum than it did under President López Obrador.
Martinez was a panelist at Laredo Economic Development Corporation’s 2025 Pathways for Trade Symposium, held at Laredo Country Club on Aug. 25. The panel he was on was titled: “Foreign Trade, Foreign Relations: Perspectives and Relations.”
“We have a huge advantage right now: the relationship we have with the President of Mexico has been very cordial, with a lot of communication. In these past 11 months, I’ve had more meetings with President Sheinbaum on a personal level through Index Nacional than I had in the last six years with the previous president,” Martinez said.
“That’s a huge advantage for us, especially the relationship and tactics she has for managing the President of the United States and balancing situations because we are neighbors, we are brothers, we are in a binational market, both the United States and Mexico, and we also have Canada. That must not be lost.”
Martinez continued: “Why are we working to encourage investment here in Mexico and the United States? Because we are also partners in creating jobs in the United States through the products we are sending to the United States.”
On the issue of regulation, INDEX Nacional is working hard with the Mexican government, Martinez said.
“Especially on how we can improve the procedures because we have a lot of investments. We made a commitment to President Sheinbaum. There will be more investments in Mexico, more jobs. President Sheinbaum is committed to creating 1.5 million jobs. We are working on that and we have their support to continue moving forward.”
Marrtinez also spoke about tariffs.
“Regarding tariff issues, as you know, Mr. Ebrard, our Secretary of the Economy, is constantly working in Washington on tariffs. Right now, we have tariff problems on aluminum and steel, and a few months ago, we had the problem with textiles.”
Martinez said INDEX worked with the Mexican government to address the textiles issue,
“She was in Ciudad Juárez on December 21 of last year. We were inaugurating a social security hospital, and I told her about the problem we were having with tariffs. They were defending the Mexican government and the Mexican textile industry. You know, we export a lot of textiles through Laredo. So I told her about the problem we were having with our exports. She understood perfectly and gave us a six-month extension that expired in August. It's still ongoing, and we continue shipping through that permit. And that extension, President Sheinbaum gave us.”
The other panelists were Enrique Moran, president of INDEX Nuevo Laredo, and Israel Morales, a member of INDEX 's national committee for Mexico-U.S. Affairs and International Agreements. The moderator was Cesar G. Hernandez, COO of MileOne. The master of ceremonies was Alma Acevedo, president of Global Tooling Specialties, Inc.
Here is a video recording of the panel discussion:
