Mexico: Negotiation teams make good progress in trade talks

© GUILLERMO ARIAS / AFP

According to a report published on 25 January, the trade negotiation teams of the EU and Mexico in December made important progress and reached at that time agreement on eight chapters of the deal, including on trade in goods, trade and sustainable development and good regulatory practices. The EU and Mexico both remain strongly committed to achieving an ambitious and balanced deal and aim to conclude the talks to upgrade their trade deal as soon as possible. Following this intensive work in the end of 2017, more meetings were held already in January and will continue with the Mexican delegation set to come to Brussels from 5 to 9 February and EU negotiators flying to Mexico the week after, 12-16 February. In line with the Commission's commitment to a transparent and inclusive trade policy, the EU's textual proposals which set out the EU's position in the negotiations in specific areas are available online. Some more recent texts have also been added today.

Negotiations to modernize the EU-Mexico Global Agreement, including rules on trade which are still ongoing, were launched in May 2016. The upgrade is expected to substantially benefit both sides. Since the Global Agreement came into force in 2000, Mexico has become one of the world's most dynamic emerging economies, with Gross Domestic Products (GDP) per capita up almost 20% in real terms since 2000.

In 2016 the EU was Mexico's second-biggest export market after the US. The EU's key imports from Mexico are fuels and mining products, office and telecommunication equipment, transport equipment, and other machinery. The EU was Mexico's third-largest source of imports in 2016, after the US and China. Key EU exports to Mexico include other machinery, transport equipment, chemical products, and fuels and mining products. In terms of services EU imports from Mexico are dominated by travel services, and transport services. EU services exports to Mexico consist mainly of transport services, and telecommunications, computer and information services.