Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wants to put Mexico first in the recently signed U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA). The result: T-MEC, an abbreviation of Tratado Mexico-Estados Unidos-Canada, or the Mexico-United States-Canada Treaty. (RELATED: Canada Joins Free Trade Deal With US And Mexico)
As AFP reports, Obrador decided to seek the advice of Twitter his followers to come up with a new name. Reaching out to the faithful, Lopez Obrador asked for “something pronounceable” in Spanish.
Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador waves to supporters during his closing campaign rally at the Azteca stadium, in Mexico City, Mexico June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
Lopez Obrador’s 4.5 million followers had the option of choosing between TEUMECA, in which the U.S. comes first, T-MEC, with Mexico first, or “none of the above.” Of the three, T-MEC received the lion’s share of the 102,000 votes, getting 45 percent support.
(RELATED: Mexico’s President-Elect Has Plan To Limit Immigration To US In Letter To Trump
The president-elect declared a winner as the online polling “delivered a clear preference for T-MEC,” tweeted Lopez Obrador, as he suggested Mexico’s current president Enrique Pena Nieto initiate the change immediately.
Although Lopez Obrador received an overwhelming mandate to govern in Mexico’s presidential election, the new leader likes to keep his finger on the pulse of the nation.
According, to AFP, Trump has even taken to calling Lopez Obrador “Juan Trump” in reference to the Mexican’s populist politics.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference to discuss a revised U.S. trade agreement with Mexico and Canada in the Rose Garden of the White House on Oct. 1, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
There has been no such name-change movement in Canada, where a Canada first policy is not one pursued by its prime minister, Justin Trudeau. The Official Opposition Conservatives, who insist they could have brokered a “better” deal for Canada have dubbed the new trade agreement “NAFTA0.5” suggesting the deal offers half as much to Canada as the old NAFTA did.