The Mexican Ministry of Economy informed that it has opened permanent channels of dialogue with its counterparts in Colombia and Chile to seek a consensual solution to transfer the presidency of the Pacific Alliance and resume work within this trade bloc.

«Although, under the alphabetical order, the presidency would correspond to Peru, said country currently lacks the minimum conditions to exercise constructive leadership and ensure governance in the work of the Alliance,» said the Ministry of Economy in a press release issued on Friday.

The Peruvian government and the parliamentary bloc that supports it have escalated their hostility against both Colombia and Mexico, thus cancelling their ability to convene and coordinate the work of the Pacific Alliance.

Last December 20, the Mexican ambassador was forced to leave Peru within 72 hours.

«As regards Colombia, recently its president, Gustavo Petro, was declared persona non grata by the Foreign Relations Commission of the Peruvian Congress, thus isolating this country from the cooperation and integration that characterizes these progressive times in Latin America«, added the Ministry of Economy.

Pacific Alliance

From the perspective of the Ministry of Economy, these positions would make it difficult for Mexico to attend the calls of an eventual Peruvian presidency, much less for Mexican government officials to attend trade meetings in Peruvian territory, since the minimum conditions of consular and diplomatic protection are not in place.

«We hope that in the Pacific Alliance bloc we manage to build a consensus to resume the work for the benefit of the integration of our peoples,» said the Ministry of Economy.

In 2020, two amending protocols to the Additional Protocol to the Pacific Alliance Framework Agreement entered into force.

Provisions related to electronic commerce and the provision of telecommunications services were modified.

A new chapter on regulatory improvement was also included and an annex on cosmetics was added to the chapter on technical barriers to trade.

On the other hand, in 2022 the Pacific Alliance and Singapore signed a trade agreement.

Mexico has signed numerous trade agreements; among others, it is a party to the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Pacific Alliance.

Within LAIA, Mexico has several partial trade agreements covering only trade in goods. The agreement with Mercosur is limited to the automotive sector.