Brussels, Belgium, 24 November 1999.

Today, Herminio Blanco Mendoza, Secretary of Trade and Industrial Promotion of Mexico, and Pascal Lamy, Trade Commissioner of the European Commission, hold a meeting in which they formally concluded the negotiations of the Mexico-EU Free Trade Agreement (M-EU FTA).

The process of strengthening the relations between Mexico and the European Union began in 1995, the year of the signature of the Solemn Joint Statement in which both Parties took the engagement of deepening their economic, political and co- operation relations, including the liberalization of bilateral trade.

The Economic Partnership, Political Coordination and Co-operation Agreement between Mexico and the European Union (known as Global Agreement), as well as the Interim Agreement on trade and trade-related issues, were both signed on December 8^th 1997. The Interim Agreement represents the commercial edge of the Global Agreement and the legal instrument that made the trade negotiation possible.

The first round of the free trade negotiations was hold a little over one year ago, on November 9^th 1998. The negotiations were carried out alternatively in Mexico City and in Brussels.

During the negotiations, the Mexican Government went on consulting the private sector before taking any major decision and kept him informed on the progress made in the negotiations through appropriate meetings with the Entrepreneurial Coordinator for international trade (COECE, its Spanish acronym). An important delegation of COECE participated in all the negotiation rounds. In the ninth round, which was held in Brussels, the private sector delegation was composed of  85 representatives

Since negotiations began, the Mexican executive has been in consultation with the Mexican Senate and with the Advisory Board for International Trade Negotiations, integrated by representatives of the business, social, academic and labor sectors.

Today’s agreement is divided into eleven chapters: market access; rules of origin; technical standards, sanitary and phytosanitary standards; safeguard measures; investment and related payments; trade in services; government procurement; competition; intellectual property and dispute settlement.

The Mexico-EU FTA will put EU enterprises:

• on an equal footing with NAFTA competitors in the Mexican market.
• Inside Mexico’s network of Free Trade Agreements, with 32 countries, which represent more than 60% of the world market with 820 million consumers.