Money Talks: Mexico Pivots Away from the US on Trade Curt Mills - U.S. News & World Report | |
go to original April 4, 2017 |
The European Union and Mexico have agreed to accelerate negotiations for a new free trade deal. (TRT World)
Mexico has begun the perhaps inevitable: pivoting away from a highly-dependent trading relationship with the United States.
The U.S. is Mexico's largest trading partner, buying more than 75 percent of its exports in 2012, the State Department says. Other estimates put the figure at more than 80 percent as of 2016.
But continued disagreements between Mexico City and a U.S. president who has promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and build a wall on the southern border have Mexican leaders starting to look elsewhere.
On Monday, Mexican officials met with European Union officials, with both sides eager to accelerate trade talks that have been under way for years. Juan Carlos Baker, the Mexican deputy economy minister, called these negotiations "paramount."
"Right now there's no other issue, no other negotiation on top of the trade agenda for Mexico but this one," Baker said in Brussels. "The present circumstances I suppose only make it even more necessary."
The minister said he and the Europeans are eyeing a 2017 conclusion to the talks.
"It's a shared desire to proceed as quickly as possible with this negotiation," Andrew Standley, the EU ambassador to Mexico, commented to CNNMoney in February on the new tenor of the negotiations.
Mexico is also looking to expand its foothold in the rest of Latin America, eyeing duty-free corn deals to counter Trump, particularly with regional giants Brazil and Argentina. Mexico is the biggest buyer of U.S. corn, but that could change.
...Additionally, China is likely looking to expand its clout with the United States' neighbor.
Read the rest at U.S. News & World Report
Related: Mexico Bolsters Ports to Promote Free Trade, Says President (Xinhua)
Related: Trump's NAFTA Showdown Likely to Be a Big Mess (Mother Jones)
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