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China wants Free Trade Agreement with Mexico

Ambassador Qiu Xiaoqi seeks to boost bilateral relations

Photo: Alejandro Acosta/EL UNIVERSAL
29/06/2017 |18:08Astrid Rivera |
Redacción El Universal
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China

aims to sign a Free Trade Agreement with Mexico in order to strengthen its trade relations with our country, said Qiu Xiaoqi , China's ambassador to Mexico.

In a press conference for the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China , Qiu Xiaoqi said that the relationship with Mexico is very important, since it is its second trading partner in Latin America, so the Asian nation has an interest in expanding and deepening our business relations.

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"If we negotiate a free trade agreement, it will favor the exchange between the two countries. From China's part, we have no difficulty. We want to promote and deepen trade with Mexico, which at the moment is a very important partner for China. Any agreement which facilitates trade would be great," said the diplomat.

The Chinese ambassador to Mexico said that the value of the trade between the two nations amounted to USD$43 billion last year.

"I still cannot say what we are discussing, from China's part we are willing to talk about this. It is not the time to define what we are going to do yet, we want to promote our trade and economic cooperation with Mexico," he stressed.

He said that China is ready to lend its support to our country for the construction of special economic zones in the south of Mexico, taking China as reference, since four special economic zones were established in the southeast region of the country in 1970 , three in Guangdong and one in Xiamen , in order to boost the country's economic development.

"We can say with certainty that this policy of special economic zones in China has been successful, after that we have established new and more special economic zones. I am happy to see that Mexico is trying to introduce this practice because last year was passed the Law of Special Economic Zones ."

He said that opening a country to the world involves a risk, "but not because there is a risk we will not open our economy to the world, China's development has a lot to do with it."

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