1. MEXICO| POLITICS&SECURITY
Peña Nieto agrees deals in Colombia
From 26 to 29 October the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto,
embarked on an official state visit to Colombia at the invitation of
counterpart President Juan Manual Santos. The meeting with Santos
formed one part of three separate engagements that Peña Nieto fulfilled.
After private meetings with Santos, he met with representatives of the
Colombian legislature and judiciary. The final part of the visit on 28 and 29
October was dedicated to the XXV Cumbres Iberoamericanas de Jefes de
Estado y de Gobierno (Ibero-American Conference of Heads of States and
Governments, CIJEG) in Cartagena de Indias, the annual meeting of the
heads of state of Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations throughout the
world.
After their meeting, the two Presidents announced a desire to see increased
cooperation between the two nations on issues including security, the
environment and business and commerce. Peña Nieto expressed his desire for
Mexico to do all it could to encourage peace in Colombia, after the peace deal
with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, FARC) was rejected in a referendum on 2 October. He
further congratulated Santos on his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and
praised the application of democracy in Colombia. The most important outcome
of their meeting was the announcement on 27 October by both heads of State that
nine separate agreements had been reached between the two nations to cooperate
on various issues. Commerce and business between the two is to be encouraged
and the protection of consumers is to be extended. Mexico and Colombia are
each other’s second biggest trading partner in the region and the biggest in the
Pacific Alliance bloc, the other two members being Peru and Chile, and over 40
Colombian companies operate in Mexico. Currently, US$2.3bn annually is
generated by trade between the two and it is hoped this figure will rise
significantly. There will be further cooperation in sporting projects. The
respective government departments concerning land usage and agriculture will
work more closely. Both nations will participate in cultural projects. Transport
between the two nations will be made more safe and accessible, with Santos
highlighting the fact that since 2011, the annual number of Colombian visitors to
Mexico has increased by five-fold, from 80m to 350m people. The two countries
will work more closely to ensure that economic development in both countries
can be achieved in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Peña
Nieto also announced that US$1m would be given to fund humanitarian projects
in Colombia.
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2. The final, and perhaps most important measure, was the announcement that there
would be much greater cooperation between the two with regards to internal
security and the fight against drug trafficking. During the announcement, both
Peña Nieto and Santos acknowledged that the countries faced similar problems
concerning organised crime. Peña Nieto stated on the 27 October that the level of
cooperation between the two had reached a “strategic” level and that there was
no other country in the region with whom Mexico worked more closely on the
issue, stating that it was a “day-to-day, minute-by-minute” level of integration.
Mexican and Colombian security forces will share information and intelligence
about groups who operate in both countries. Santos announced that Colombia
would provide training to 6,500 newly recruited members of Mexico’s security
forces to help combat drug trafficking. The two leaders also revealed that there
would be increased cooperation in the fight against the illegal arms trade.
At the meeting of the Ibero-American Summit, whose focus this year was on
youth, entrepreneurship and education, Peña Nieto and the Secretaria de
Relaciones Exteriores de México (Secretary of the External Relations of Mexico,
SREM) Claudia Ruiz Massieu began by proposed a motion congratulating
Santos on his strive for peace in Colombia. Santos and Peña both announced on
27, before the meeting, that more would be done to enable students to study in
the other country. The meeting represents a new level of cooperation between the
two nations.
Sidebar: Economic Outlooks
Despite lower oil prices and a softening in external demand, GDP in Mexico is
expected to rise by 3% in 2017, whilst the weakening of the Mexican Peso has
strengthened Mexican exports, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-
Operation and Development’s (OECD) June 2016 economic forecast. Colombia
will suffer from both low commodity prices and external demand, but GDP
growth is expected to rise to 3% as well, as government reform takes effect.
However, the government budget deficit and inflation both remain high with the
latter at 8.6% at the time of the latest OECD forecast in June, but it has since
fallen to 7.3%.
PRINTED MEXICO AND NAFTA NOVEMBER 2016
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