This event is in partnership with the US – MX Business Association (AEM).

On February 1st, President Trump announced the imposition of 25% tariffs on imports from the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) partner countries, Canada and Mexico, and a 10% tariff on goods coming from China. This unprecedented move has the potential to severely disrupt trade and investment, impact inflation, and ultimately damage economic growth and employment across North America. Though the tariffs have been postponed for 30 days, they hang like the proverbial sword of Damocles over the economies of all three countries.

Join us on Wednesday, February 19, at 6 pm for an insightful discussion on the implications of President Trump’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Our speakers will examine the importance of North American cooperation, especially the USMCA, for strengthening U.S. competitiveness in the face of strategic competition from China. Representatives of the governments of Canada and Mexico will outline their national responses to the tariffs and will discuss the importance of a speedy resolution to the situation. Experts will also look at the ongoing logic for North American economic integration on a wide range of issues. Lastly, representatives of the Los Angeles business community will look at the prospects for USMCA review and renegotiation under the Trump administration.

Guest speakers for the evening will include:

• Ambassador Carlos González Gutiérrez, Consul General of Mexico in Los Angeles
• Zaib Shaikh, Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles
• Duncan Wood, Pacific Council President & CEO 
• Alejandra Palacios, Pacific Council Board Director & External Advisor of Cuatrecasas, focusing on corporate governance, compliance, antitrust and competition
• Fernando Sepúlveda, Chairman, U.S. - MX Business Association (AEM)

In these profoundly uncertain times, the Pacific Council and the Associacion de Empresarios Mexicanos (AEM) are committed to providing clarity and analysis of government policy as it affects our lives in Southern California.

Save the date. Additional details on venue and added speakers forthcoming.

Guest Speaker

As of February 26, 2024, Ambassador Carlos González Gutiérrez is the Consul General of Mexico in Los Angeles, having been ratified by the Mexican Senate in December 2023 unanimously. As a career diplomat since 1987, he has specialized in Mexican communities within the United States of America, where all of his assignments outside Mexico have been.
 
In the late 1990s, he worked in Mexico in the Program for Communities of Mexicans Abroad within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from 2003 to 2009, he was the first Executive Director of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, an agency responsible for promoting links and collaboration between Mexico and its diaspora. He has had five assignments abroad. At the beginning of his career he was Consul for communities at the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles. Later, from 1999 to 2003, he was appointed Counselor for Latin Affairs at the Mexican Embassy in Washington DC.
 
In 2009, Carlos González Gutiérrez was appointed for the first time as Consul General of Mexico in Sacramento, where in addition to his regular activities, he was in charge of monitoring public policies implemented in the state that could affect Mexico or Mexican communities in California, given that Sacramento is the seat of the state powers.
 
After six years in Sacramento, Ambassador Gonzalez Gutierrez was transferred to the capital of Texas as Consul General of Mexico in Austin, again having to report on the state's public policies, as well as offering the traditional general services of a Consulate General, such as documentation, protection and community development. In September 2011, the President of the Republic promoted him to the rank of Ambassador. In 2019, he began his duties as Consul General in San Diego, California, where he served until the end of February 2024.
 
He holds a bachelor's degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México and a master's degree in International Relations from the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). He is the author of several publications on the Mexican population in the United States.

Guest Speaker

Zaib Shaikh began his mandate as Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles in December 2018. He is the Government of Canada’s senior representative in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

He comes to the posting after an extensive career in the media and entertainment industries, having worked as an actor and producer in theatre, film and television. His work includes acting roles in Deepa Mehta’s film Midnight’s Children, as well as starring in the CBC comedy series Little Mosque on the Prairie, which has been seen in more than 80 countries. Mr. Shaikh co‐produced the special Long Story Short: CBC Turns 75 and co‐wrote, directed and co‐produced the film Othello: The Tragedy of the Moor. He also co-founded and served as an artistic producer of the Whistler Theatre Project in British Columbia.

From 2014 until his appointment in 2018, Mr. Shaikh was the Film Commissioner and Director of Entertainment Industries for the City of Toronto. In that role, he oversaw and grew the city’s screen, music, live festival, sporting event and tourism sectors, helping to double the value of film production in Canada’s largest city, which surpassed $2 billion in 2016.

Mr. Shaikh has served as a board member for the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion and, most recently on the board of AFC (formerly the Actors Fund of Canada). He has served on juries and committees for the Gemini Awards, ACTRA Awards, Ontario Arts Council, and Theatre Ontario Youth Program as well as an ambassador for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and for Amnesty International Canada.

Guest Speaker

Duncan Wood, PhD, is the President and CEO of the Pacific Council and has worked in international relations and policy for over 35 years. He is an internationally renowned specialist in the geopolitics of energy, supply chain policy, critical minerals, Mexican politics, and US-Mexican ties. He has frequently given testimony to the U.S. Congress, is a widely quoted media source, and has published extensively on a wide range of global issues.  He is the author or editor of 12 books and over 30 chapters and articles.

Born in Kent, England, he studied politics at Leicester University before pursuing graduate studies in political science at McMaster University and Queens University, both in Ontario, Canada. In 1996, he received his PhD and moved to Mexico City to work at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, where he became a professor of and Director of the program in International Relations. After 17 years in Mexico, working on international banking supervision, energy policy, and North American integration, he became the Director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. In 2021, Dr Wood was promoted to Vice President for Strategy and New Initiatives at the Wilson Center and worked alongside the Board of Trustees to design a new strategic plan for the center.

Over the past decade, he has served as co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Transparency and Anti-Corruption and has worked closely with the WEF on energy policy.  He is a board member of Transparency International, Signos Vitales (a Mexican public policy research organization), and Foreign Affairs Latinoamerica and is an editorial advisor to El Universal newspaper. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and a Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); an editorial advisor to Reforma newspaper; Technical Secretary of the Red Mexicana de Energia; a consultant with McLarty Associates, the Economist Intelligence Unit, Horizon and Eurasia Group; and owner of a speakeasy in Mexico City.

Guest Speaker

Alejandra Palacios Prieto is a public policy expert specializing in strategy, antitrust and competition regulation, and network industries. She serves as an Independent Board Member of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (NYSE: PAC; BMV: GAP), Mexico´s largest airport operator, where she sits in the Sustainability Committee of BBVA Mexico, Mexico’s largest financial institution, and of Grupo Alfa (BMV: ALFAA). Additionally, she is a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute and a member of the Latin American Initiative at George Washington University’s Competition & Innovation Lab (GW CIL).
Alejandra was the first female Chair of Mexico’s antitrust agency, the Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE), from 2013 to 2021. During her tenure, she led the agency through groundbreaking antitrust cases, establishing its global reputation as a top competition authority. Under her leadership, COFECE received the prestigious EDGE Certification for gender equality, marking a significant achievement as the first public entity in the Americas to do so. Her international influence extended through her roles as Vice President of the International Competition Network, the premier global organization on antitrust comprised of 140 competition authorities, and as a member of the OECD's Competition Committee Board.

Palacios holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from ITAM, where she graduated with the highest honors. She also holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from ITAM, and a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE).

Palacios is a member of the Trilateral Commission, the Pacific Council on International Policy, the Mexican Chapter of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), and the Advisory Committee of the Business School at the Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Guest Speaker

Fernando Sepúlveda is a visionary leader and a passionate advocate for entrepreneurship, innovation, and philanthropy. He is a distinguished serial entrepreneur, mentor, angel investor, board member, author of numerous publications, and an international speaker. Currently, he serves as the President of the U.S. MX Business Association (AEM) and the Ibero American Technology Foundation. With a solid academic background and extensive professional experience, Fernando has founded and led multiple initiatives that have significantly impacted the business and philanthropic landscapes in both Mexico and the United States. Through his various roles and organizations, he continues to drive the development of new ventures and contributes to the social and economic well-being of the communities he serves.

He is the Founder and CEO of EMTECH—Emerging Technologies Institute, which specializes in emerging technologies. The institute focuses on developing and implementing innovative technological solutions that foster business growth and enhance competitiveness. Additionally, he is the Co-founder of Mindscale.ai, a company dedicated to artificial intelligence, where he applies his vision and expertise to develop tools that improve decision-making and operational efficiency across various industries. Fernando also founded TrepCamp, an entrepreneurial training ecosystem designed to equip participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to launch and scale their businesses. In 2005, he established the Impulsa Business Accelerator to support entrepreneurs in their early growth stages by providing resources, mentorship, and access to investor networks.

Regarding his academic background, Fernando completed the Scale-Up Excellence Program at Stanford University. He holds a master’s degree in public policy with a specialization in Business and Government from the Harvard Kennedy School and earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).