The opposition parties have dismissed this claim as scare tactics, and their argument has been reinforced by an institution that actually agrees with most of the government's reform proposals, the Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas (Imef). According to Imef president Alberto Espinosa, each of the two reforms proposed by the government — of taxation and energy régimes — `will enable a growth of only half a percentage point, so both of them together would only increase GDP by one point.' He said the effects of the reforms will only be felt in the longer run; the economy will not experience any substantial changes until 2006.
TRADE | No deal with Japan, overture to Mercosur. The free-trade agreement with Japan was not ready to be signed, as hoped, during President Vicente Fox's visit to Tokyo last week. Negotiations stalled over Japan's unwillingness to grant significant market access to Mexico's agricultural exports. Japan's offer to halve tariffs on pork and increase the quota at the new rate by 14%, to 80,000 tonnes a year, was deemed insufficient by the Mexicans, who had been seeking a zero-tariff quota of 250,000t. Mexico's position is in line with its stance as a member of the G-22 at Cancún.
Mexico's chief coordinator of international trade negotiations, Fernando de Mateo Venturini, said while visiting Brasília last week that his country wants to reach a free-trade agreement with Brazil and with Mercosur as a whole. It recently closed an FTA with Uruguay and is currently negotiating with Argentina. In the first nine months of this year Brazil ran a surplus of US$1.6bn on two-way trade of US$2.4bn with Mexico.
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