Mexico and Turkey on Friday agreed to speed up negotiations for a free-trade agreement in the wake of protectionist threats from US President Donald Trump.
Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Videgaray and his visiting Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said the two governments have held seven rounds of talks and would meet again in the coming weeks.
“We have agreed to give a faster impetus to the search for an agreement,” Videgaray told reporters. “Today, more than ever, Mexico is open to the world and Mexico wants to build and strengthen its trade and investment ties with every country that we are friends with, regardless of geographic distance.”
Cavusoglu said Turkey wants to “intensify talks” on free trade with Mexico.
He also proposed to strengthen the MIKTA forum, a political and trade group made up of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia.
“Together we will invest more efforts into making this forum more politically relevant, more effective and more visible,” Cavusoglu said.
The US, Canada and Mexico are preparing to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), as demanded by Trump, who said the pact a “catastrophe” for his country.
Faced with Trump’s threat to leave NAFTA if necessary, Latin America’s second-biggest economy is speeding up negotiations with the EU and seeking to tighten trade bonds with other nations.
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