“EU free trade strategy celebrates success”

The EU can celebrate a success of its free trade strategy: the last chunk of the EU-Mexico Free Trade Agreement has been cleared.

Ulrich Ackermann, head of the foreign trade department of the VDMA, comments on the agreement between the EU and Mexico on the modernisation of the bilateral free trade agreement:

“The EU can celebrate another success of its free trade strategy. After tough negotiations, the final chunk of the EU-Mexico Free Trade Agreement – reciprocal access in public procurement – has now been removed. Now nothing stands in the way of signing the agreement.

For the mechanical engineering industry, the new agreement significantly improves the framework conditions compared to the previous agreement. The rules of origin will be modernized and the removal of technical barriers to trade will be made easier. International standards will be applied more widely and mutual recognition of testing institutes will be made possible.
Mexico is the most important export market in Central and South America for the German capital goods industry. In 2019, machines and plants were sold to the country for approximately 2.5 billion euros. This made Germany the third most important foreign supplier of machinery after the USA and China”.