Brazil, more than a complement
Clouthier also stated, in 2022, that he wanted to close a bilateral agreement with Brazil, but no progress was made on this agenda either.
Lugo Aranda says that a treaty with Brazil is complicated, since that country is seen more as a competitor in many sectors, mainly in the automotive sector, and not so much as a complement. “We know that the budget cut has hit the Ministry of Economy, specifically in the area of trade negotiations,” says the former negotiator of the USMCA, because she believes that there is no public information and it is not known exactly why there has been no progress.
Ana Gutierrez adds that Mexico has increased its purchases from Brazil in the last five years; therefore, having a treaty can generate tariff facilities, since Mexico also has a significant trade deficit with Brazil, which last year stood at 9,114 million dollars.
The United Kingdom, a major investor
With its exit from the European Union, the United Kingdom sought a treaty with Mexico and so, in 2022, Tatiana Clouthier and Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the United Kingdom’s International Trade Secretary, agreed in London to formally begin negotiations for a treaty that did not advance, so a Trade Continuity Agreement signed in 2020 is in place.
“We are giving the United Kingdom preferences like when it was in the European Union, so this also necessarily needs to be corrected,” says Juan Carlos Baker.
In terms of trade, Mexico’s sales to that country reached $2.912 billion in 2023, with imports of a similar value.
Ecuador, without expectations
Mexico did not want to include bananas and shrimp in the free trade agreement it was negotiating with Ecuador, which, from the start, left the agreement frozen. President López Obrador said that these Mexican sectors would be protected, and this was compounded by the complication in the diplomatic relationship that was broken following the Ecuadorian police raid on the Mexican embassy last April.
“Mexico is not doing much harm by not having this treaty. In some sectors the country is very competitive and Ecuador did not want to give in,” says Monica Lugo; while Ana Gutierrez does not consider this agreement dead, but she does put it at the bottom of the government’s priorities.
In 2023, Mexico’s exports to Ecuador reached 595 million dollars, resulting in a trade balance in favor of Mexico, with a surplus of 368 million.
