MEXICO CITY/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian and Mexican authorities said on Monday they see the need to revise and expand their current trade agreements, in a push to strengthen the ties between the two largest economies in Latin America.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is in Mexico as part of an official government visit, which will include his presence in Claudia Sheinbaum’s inauguration ceremony as Mexico’s president on Tuesday.
Mexico and Brazil have a trade agreement dated from the early 2000s which sets the exemption or the reduction of imports fees for some 800 types of products.
“The growth of our relationship has already topped that agreement,” Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s incoming economy minister, said on the sidelines of an event on Monday. “We need to update it,” he added.
Earlier in the day at the same event, Lula said that the trade agreements between both countries, which also include a deal regulating trade of vehicles and auto parts, need to be revised as soon as possible.
“I want our industries to grow, our agricultures to grow, I want Brazil and Mexico investing to build artificial intelligence that could bring economic benefits for us,” he said in his speech, without providing more details.
During the event, Lula also suggested that the trade agreement in discussion between the European Union and South America’s Mercosur bloc could in the future be extended to Latin America.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry in Mexico City; Eduardo Simoes and Andre Romani in Sao Paulo; Editing by Chris Reese, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Edward Tobin)
