Mexico Is A Gateway To North & Latin America, Has FTAs With 50 Countries: Ambassador Federico Salas

NEW DELHI: On ‘The Gist’, Ambassador Federico Salas Lotfe, Mexico’s Envoy to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives in discussion with StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi.

“It’s simple, not complicated,” the envoy says about the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade agreement. “Mexico is a gateway to the North American market” and “has Free Trade Agreements with 41+ countries including the European Union.” adding, “the reach we have in market access through all these FTAs is almost equivalent to India’s population of 1.3 billion people.”

Ambassador Salas discusses External Affairs Minister(EAM) Dr S Jaishankar’s visit to Mexico-the first by an EAM for 41 years-the “push to bring Mexico-India trade back to and beyond the 2018 pre pandemic level of $10 billion, Mexico realising the importance of the Indo-Pacific structure for a free, open, rules-based international order, how Mexico is “winning the competition with China” despite the “healthy, growing relationship”, India and Mexico as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, and civilisational ties.