The Redistribution

Mexico’s upper house of parliament approved a package of laws this week, including a contentious mining reform that sparked concerns from the country’s mining chamber and its trade partner Canada, Reuters reported.

Lawmakers of the ruling Morena party and its allies approved the bills, including two constitutional reforms, in an express parliamentary session that was notable for its lack of debate.

The new legislation will reduce concessions in the mining sector from 50 to 30 years, limit water extraction permits, and order the distribution of mining profits to local communities.

The changes are part of an initiative by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who initially proposed reducing concessions to 15 years. The president has not granted any new mining concessions since he took office in 2018.

López Obrador countered that previous governments granted too many permits to extract Mexico’s resources, which include gold, silver, and copper.

Even so, Canada’s Ministry of Commerce worried that the decision would impact Canadian investment in Mexico’s mining industry, where many Canadian companies operate.

Camimex, Mexico’s mining chamber, also cautioned that the new legislation could result in a loss of approximately $9 billion in investments and up to 420,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, the other two constitutional reforms involved lowering the age to be a legislator and secretary of state from 21 to 18 years old, and banning perpetrators of gender violence from participating in elections.