Mexico & Nafta - November 2016 (ISSN 1741-444X)

From 26 to 28 October, Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto, embarked on an official state visit to Colombia, at the invitation of counterpart President Juan Manual Santos. The visit came ahead of Peña Nieto’s attendance at the XXV Ibero-American heads of state summit held in the Colombian city of Cartagena de Indias on 28-29 October. During his visit Peña Nieto met with Santos and representatives from Colombia’s legislature and national judiciary with whom he discussed bilateral security and economic cooperation and signed agreements in these areas.

After holding a private meeting on 27 October, Presidents Peña Nieto and Santos gave a joint press conference in which they expressed a desire to see increased cooperation between their two nations on issues including security, the environment and business and commerce. Peña Nieto expressed his desire for Mexico to do all it could to help advance Colombia’s peace process, after the peace deal that the Santos government had reached with the insurgent Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) was rejected in a 2 October national referendum. Peña Nieto nonetheless congratulated Santos on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end Colombia’s long-running internal armed conflict and praised the democratic manner in which Colombia was handling the peace process. Peña Nieto also announced that Mexico would give US$1m to fund humanitarian projects in Colombia in support of the peace process.

However, the most important outcome of the leaders’ meeting was the announcement by both heads of state that nine separate agreements had been reached between the two nations to cooperate on various issues including trade, security, transport, and sports and cultural cooperation. Trade between the two countries is to be encouraged and the protection of consumers is to be extended. Mexico and Colombia are each other’s second biggest trading partners in the region and the biggest in the Pacific Alliance trade bloc (of which both are members along with Chile and Peru), and over 40 Colombian companies operate in Mexico. Currently, US$2.3bn annually is generated by two-way trade and it is hoped this figure will rise significantly.

The two countries also agreed to work more closely to ensure that economic development in both countries can be achieved in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner, with the respective government departments dealing with land usage and agriculture cooperating more closely. The two leaders also signed deals designed to make transport between the two nations safer and more accessible, with Santos highlighting the fact that since 2011, the annual number of Colombian visitors to Mexico has increased five-fold, from 80m to 350m people.

The final but perhaps most important measure of all, was the announcement that there would be much greater cooperation between the two countries with regards to internal security and the fight against drug trafficking. During the announcement, both Peña Nieto and Santos acknowledged that their respective countries faced similar problems concerning organised crime. Peña Nieto stated that the level of bilateral cooperation had reached a “strategic” level and that there was no other country in the region with which Mexico worked more closely on the issue, stating that it was a “day-to-day, minute-by-minute” level of cooperation. Yet this cooperation is now set to deepen as Mexican and Colombian security forces will share information and intelligence about groups who operate in both countries. Meanwhile Santos said that Colombia would provide training to 6,500 newly recruited members of Mexico’s security forces to help combat drug trafficking. The two leaders also revealed that there would be increased cooperation in the fight against the illegal arms trade.

• Economic prospects for 2017

Despite lower oil prices and a weakening external demand, GDP in Mexico is expected to rise by 3% in 2017, whilst the depreciation of the Mexican Peso has strengthened Mexican exports, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s (OECD) economic forecasts. Colombia is expected to suffer from both low commodity prices and external demand next year, however it’s GDP is also expected to rise by 3%.