Mexico, EU at odds over amended trade deal

Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Mexico is at odds with the EU over the bloc’s recent amendments to the trade deal agreed upon roughly four years ago.

The EU is pressuring Mexico to approve the amended deal, while Mexico notes that Brussels recently proposed changes to the agreement, which will slow down its adoption, according to Financial Times reporting.

Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commissioner for Trade, accused Mexican officials of “taking their time” and noted that the EC proposed amendments to the trade deal to mirror the agreement that the EU signed with Chile in December last year.

“In a recent week we proposed a possible solution on the legal architecture of this modernized global agreement to Mexico,” Dombrovskis noted and added, “we think it’s a good solution, which also takes into account some of Mexico’s concerns.”

He pointed out that the Commission is waiting for Mexico to give its final response to the proposal and concluded “we’re ready to move forward with the agreement as soon as we get that reply.”

Mexico’s position

Héctor Vasconcelos, head of Mexico’s Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, rejected Dombrovskis’ accusation that Mexico was holding up the deal.

“We are ready to ratify this at any moment because we consider this matter closed,” he pointed out and added “Mexico’s position is that it is not necessary to separate the agreement into parts.”

Vasconcelos warned that amending the agreement would require renegotiation and stressed that it should be “approved as agreed upon by the commissions negotiating the agreement.”

Dombrovskis reiterated that the EC wants to sign a single deal with Mexico and noted that the bloc wants to sign new trade deals to avoid “strategic dependencies” on countries like natural gas from Russia.

“Following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and China’s ambiguous stance in this regard, there is clearly some reassessment of our China policy,” he added and stressed that the EC will “continue to engage with China, but without naivety.”

Commenting on Chinese investments in technology in the EU including vehicle battery plants, Dombrovskis stressed the importance of scrutiny and pointed out that “there are reasons why we have an FDI screening mechanism in place.”