The Diplomat
The Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, yesterday called for Spain’s six-month Presidency of the European Union to be used to ratify the trade agreement between Mexico and the European Community bloc.
“We have to find an immediate solution in the coming months to be able to ratify it because the benefits are obvious, but it needs to be modernised so that we can continue to use it as a lever for economic growth,” she said during the first edition of the ‘Mexico and Spain Business Forum, a business commitment to the future’.
Méndez argued that both countries have “a strategic relationship that is discrepancy-proof” and invited Mexican companies to invest in the Spanish market because Spain can be a “direct country” for Mexican businessmen, but can also act “as a gateway to third markets such as the EU, the Mediterranean area and Africa”.
Numerous representatives of Mexican companies attended the meeting, the inauguration of which was also attended by the President of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi; the President of the Mexican Business Coordinating Council (CCE), Francisco Cervantes, and the President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, José Luis Bonet.
Cervantes defended the potential of North America for companies, with “more than 500 million potential buyers”, and recalled that annual trade with Spain amounts to 4.5 billion dollars. The President of the CCE gave as examples of sectors with opportunities “manufacturing and agricultural products”, as well as the possibilities for investment in the tourism sector.
In order for trade and business relations between the two countries to continue to function, the Mexican businessman called for “competitive regulations and public policies” and that “there should be no surprises in the change of rules”.
An aspect on which he agreed with the President of CEOE, who asked that Spanish companies should be able to count on “legal advice and regulatory stability” in their investments in the American country.
Garamendi recalled that Mexico is “the sixth largest investor country in Spain and “the third largest in the European Union” and called on the countries “even more united” to “work together for change, renewal, the digital and circular economy that we all want”.
