{"id":32904,"date":"2025-07-01T05:08:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T05:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32904"},"modified":"2025-07-01T05:08:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T05:08:29","slug":"mexico-and-brazil-seek-deeper-trade-ties-to-expand-beyond-us-and-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32904","title":{"rendered":"Mexico and Brazil seek deeper trade ties to expand beyond US and China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=d2732670-7ede-4514-a728-70cf1d813be2\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Brazil and Mexico have begun preliminary talks to deepen their trade agreement as Latin America\u2019s two largest economies seek to boost commercial partnerships beyond China and Donald Trump\u2019s US.<\/p>\n<p>Diplomats from the two nations have held ongoing informal talks since Mexico\u2019s President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/9fd3dfcb-aa8f-46b9-ad2f-894cd95809d7\" data-trackable=\"link\">Claudia Sheinbaum<\/a> took office in October to try to set the terms for formal negotiations, three people with knowledge of the matter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In that time, left-wing leaders Sheinbaum and President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva have met on four separate occasions. Both have publicly stated an intention to deepen economic ties. Brazil\u2019s trade secretary is set to travel to Mexico City in August to look into it in greater detail, Sheinbaum said this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can supply what Brazil doesn\u2019t have and they can supply what Brazil has that we don\u2019t, not only in terms of the trade agreement but also in terms of investments,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Brazil and Mexico are Latin America\u2019s two largest countries but have historically been distant because of rivalry over regional leadership, differing levels of economic openness and Mexico\u2019s focus on the US, which is by far its largest trading partner.<\/p>\n<p>But President Donald Trump\u2019s new trade tariffs and the Latin American countries\u2019 ideologically compatible leftist governments made this an auspicious moment for closer ties, the people said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a lot of enthusiasm from both countries, a lot of will from both,\u201d one person involved in the talks said. \u201cThere is a deep political, programmatic and ideological affinity\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009the dialogue is at all levels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Only 14 per cent of Latin America\u2019s goods trade takes place within the region, a lower proportion than anywhere else in the world. Lula has long championed closer integration, believing that improving the region\u2019s poor trade and infrastructure links is key to boosting prosperity.<\/p>\n<p>The two countries already have a limited trade agreement from the early 2000s that lowers or exempts import fees on about 800 product categories. <\/p>\n<p>Their bilateral trade has a lot of room for growth. It totalled just $13.6bn in 2024, according to official figures from Brazil, which recorded a $2bn surplus. The figure was a tiny fraction of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/1902feb4-9c1c-4c90-ba6b-235e89fda784\" data-trackable=\"link\">the $840bn<\/a> of goods traded between the US and Mexico last year \u2014 and the $161.8bn in 2024 exchanged between Brazil and China in 2024. <\/p>\n<p>For Mexico, which is gearing up for a tense renegotiation of its USMCA deal with the US and Canada, Brazil could offer investment opportunities in sectors such as aerospace and pharmaceuticals, while helping ease its dependence on the US for imports of grains including yellow corn.<\/p>\n<p>Brazilian officials say its industrial and agribusiness sectors are interested in increasing exports to Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides are treading cautiously to avoid upsetting the US or China, Brazil\u2019s top trade partner and the biggest buyer of its commodities, saying the talks fall into their efforts to diversify their trading relationships. <\/p>\n<p>The two sides are yet to decide whether to simply expand their existing deal to reduce tariff barriers \u2014 possibly including an investment protection agreement \u2014 or embark on a bigger negotiation for a full trade agreement, one official said.<\/p>\n<p>Yet officials caution about the pace of proceedings with both governments\u2019 resources limited \u2014 Mexico\u2019s by USMCA talks and Brazil\u2019s by elections next year. This could make an upgrade to the existing trade deal more realistic than fully negotiating a new one.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides were allowed to negotiate agreements with each other under their regional trade deals, officials said. Mexico\u2019s automotive sector agreement with South America\u2019s Mercosur customs bloc could also come into the bilateral negotiations, said two officials. <\/p>\n<p>Brazil\u2019s trade ministry said conversations with Mexico were ongoing. Mexico\u2019s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/d2732670-7ede-4514-a728-70cf1d813be2\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}