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Saturday, March 1, 2014

Mexico Boosting China Ties Through Trade, Investment, Meade Says

Mexico wants to strengthen ties with China to take advantage of the nation’s growth after the world’s second-largest economy invested more in Central and South America in recent years, according to Mexico’s top diplomat.

Mexico is working to export more tequila and pork to China and attract investment in industries including energy, infrastructure and tourism, Jose Antonio Meade, the nation’s foreign minister, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Mexico City office yesterday.

President Enrique Pena Nieto is also increasing Mexico’s integration with the rest of Latin America through the Pacific Alliance, and together the moves help decrease dependence on the U.S., Meade said. “There’s space to seek better access for Mexican goods in the Chinese market,” Meade said.

“On the other side, China is very under-represented in terms of investment in Mexico. We’re probably one of the Latin American countries where China has the least presence.”

Mexico would like to attract investment “in any of the industries where China has been active in the rest of the region and still not in Mexico,” Meade said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Mexico in June, and Pena Nieto traveled to Beijing in April, as Mexico looks to strengthen ties with China and diversify away from the U.S. During Xi’s visit, the nations agreed to cooperate in the mining and energy industries.

Pacific Alliance

Mexico sent 71 percent of its exports to the U.S. in 2012, down from 84 percent in 2002, according to International Monetary Fund data compiled by Bloomberg. China bought 2.3 percent of Mexico’s exports in 2012, more than tripling its share of a decade earlier.

China has become Mexico’s biggest export market after the U.S. and Canada, the nation’s partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement, from the sixth largest in 2002, according to the IMF.

Meade said the Pacific Alliance, a trade pact between Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru, is being developed with the possibility for bigger economies such as the U.S. or Canada, who are currently observers, to join in the future.

The deal is flexible enough to allow nations to participate in some chapters and not others, Meade said.

Asked about the arrest of alleged Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman last week, Meade said Mexico hasn’t received an extradition request from the U.S., where Guzman faces indictment in cities including Chicago and Miami.

Pena Nieto’s administration will consider any request based on Mexico’s extradition treaty obligations and sovereignty, Meade said. “It’s early right now to know the timeline for the process since it hasn’t started,” Meade said.

bloomberg.com

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