The United Kingdom and Mexico Sign UK-Mexico Trade Continuity Agreement
Joint Statement by the UK and Mexico
Published 15 December 2020
The Governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Mexican States welcome the signing of the UK-Mexico Trade Continuity Agreement, marked by a meeting today between the Secretary of State for International Trade of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth Truss, and the Minister of Economy of Mexico, Graciela Márquez Colín, on 15 December 2020.
The Agreement provides for continuity in trade between Mexico and the United Kingdom after the end of this year. The Agreement is intended to be transitional in nature. The UK and Mexico agree to begin negotiations on a new and ambitious Free Trade Agreement in 2021.
Today’s agreement will maintain preferential access for trade between Mexico and the UK following the end of the UK’s Transition Period with the EU on 31 December 2020, when the EU-Mexico Global Agreement will no longer apply to the UK. Both sides will strive to bring the agreement into force on 1 January 2021, subject to parliamentary procedures and legislative approvals.
The agreement will provide certainty for UK and Mexican businesses trading the goods and services that make up our bilateral trade relationship, which accounts for over 5 billion dollars per year. It will deliver vital coverage for the automotive, pharmaceutical, textiles, agriculture, food and drink and other manufacturing industries. This will prevent the additional duty burden that would be levied under WTO MFN terms.
This follows the recent signing of the UK – Mexico Agreement on the Mutual Recognition and Protection of Designations for Spirit Drinks, an important geographical indications agreement between the United Kingdom and Mexico to protect the spirits of both countries. This agreement will protect our traditional spirits like Irish and Scottish Whisky and Tequila, Sotol and Mezcal.
Investment relations will continue to take place under the Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the United Mexican States for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments.
Future Relationship
The agreement secured today, also commits the UK and Mexico to begin negotiations on a new ambitious and modern UK-Mexico Trade Agreement at the earliest opportunity in 2021 and strive to conclude it within three years. Both sides have agreed that a future deal should be at least as liberalising as the recently agreed EU-Mexico Modernised Agreement, but with ambition to go further in areas of mutual interest. In making today’s announcement, the UK reiterates its intention to formally apply in early 2021 to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and Mexico expresses its support for this process. Both sides have agreed that our future bilateral negotiations should run in parallel to this process.
Today’s announcement is in line with the commitment to an ambitious future trading relationship which both countries made under the landmark ‘Mexico and UK: Partnership for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth’, which the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, and Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, signed in Mexico City in August 2019.
Political Dialogue and Cooperation
The UK and Mexico remain committed to a joint political dialogue covering all bilateral and international matters of mutual interest, including continuing and intensifying all areas of current cooperation.
We remain steadfast in our commitment to implementing the principles outlined in the UK-Mexico Partnership for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, signed by our Foreign Ministers in August 2019. Maintaining our bilateral political cooperation as specified in the Partnership remains a top priority for our future relationship. This includes cooperating closely on foreign policy, an inclusive COVID-19 recovery, and international peace and security.
It encompasses a common vision on the reduction of poverty and inequality, of action on climate change and environmental protection, promotion of sustainable investment, the protection of the oceans and of biodiversity, the defence of free trade, multilateralism and the international rules-based system. We will continue to regularly discuss our shared values of democracy, the comprehensive promotion and protection of human rights, the rule of law, gender equality and social inclusion.
We restate and emphasise our shared commitment to effective multilateralism and international cooperation as the basis for addressing regional and global challenges.
The UK-Mexico relationship continues to grow, and we look forward to working together to deepen the political, economic, social and people-to-people ties between our two nations.
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London based photographer Adam Wiseman announces the mailing of his exhibition: ARQUITECTURA LIBRE . An exhibition delivered to your home.
Self-built houses, and particularly those financed with remittances (money sent home by Mexican workers in the United States), are an important reflection of contemporary Mexico. Arquitectura libre is a photographic artistic-documentary exploration that lends importance to an aspect of the built environment that could otherwise be discarded as a simple Mexican cultural eccentricity.
... I am interested in the socio-anthropological reading of a cultural symbiosis, but also a conceptual reading whereby a fantasy, almost impossible to create, manifests itself in a very concrete way.
Adam Wiseman, interview for Vice Magazine.
Adam Wiseman’s work is a refreshing view of complex constructions, a reaction to the banality of the current state of architecture. To quote Robert Venturi “I like elements which are hybrid rather than "pure,"… accommodating rather than excluding, redundant rather than simple, vestigial as well as innovating, inconsistent and equivocal rather than direct and clear. I am for messy vitality over obvious unity.”[1] Adam’s work is proof that rural Mexico is currently serving as a contemporary architecture laboratory. The constructions display such creativity, expertise, and complexity that some architects actually believe there’s a secret architecture school somewhere in the State of Mexico.
Natalia Gálvez, Architect and professor at the Universidad Iberoamericano
PROGRAM:
As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, the physical exhibitions for Arquitectura libre for 2020 have been postponed or cancelled. The artist has decided to opt out of a virtual experience and, committed to the materiality of construction and that of the printed image, he proposes to take the exhibition physically to your home.
HOW IT WORKS:
A limited edition of 100 portfolios containing the exhibit will be for sale. A separate library edition will be printed whereby anyone can request a copy for free by registering at architecturalibre.mx . The physical portfolio exhibition will be sent to your home to exhibit and enjoy for two weeks on a first-come-first-served basis. At the end of that time the portfolio must be returned with a contribution from you which the work has inspired - a drawing, a poem, a discarded key, or any other flatish object. This will be part of the Arquitectura libre archive. The portfolio will then spend two weeks in quarantine, and travel on to another home.
CONTENTS:
31 casas, 2020
Grid of 31 houses 1106x1488mm
Collector's edition of 100 copies, plus 10 artist's proofs
Library edition depending on sponsorship* begins with 4 copies
Digital printing on Epson Single weight matt 120gsm paper
Printed by Richard Wills at Photofusion, Brixton, London
* Cultural foundations and individuals are encouraged to sponsor additional portfolios for a wider reach.
Catalogue with texts by:
Adam Wiseman, author of the project.
Mario de la Cruz, builder of 36 houses in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas.
Pablo Landa, PhD in Anthropology from Princeton University.
Annuska Angulo, writer and journalist author of El Mensaje está en el Tejido and Vidas sin Fronteras.
Natalia Gálvez, architect and professor of Architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana.
Portfolio:
Quilted foil fabric from My Fabrics, Schenefeld, Germany.
Lined with Dutch / African wax textiles from Deptford High Street, London.
Embroidery by Gabriel Monade, at 1834.
Stitching by Teklehamanot Beraki.
RELEASE DATE: October 2020
Embassy of Mexico in the United Kingdom
The UNAM (Mexico's National Autonomous University) headquarters in London
Patricia Conde Gallery in Mexico City
Marcablanca.Press in Madrid
Indian Photo Festival 2020 in Hyderabad
Wiseman has traced an architectural geography that brings to the fore a landscape of the other: one whereby the dream of Mexican migrants living in the United States materializes. It shows the work of an artist interested in cultural processes and the geographical movement of people, the architectural transitions from one imaginary space to another, and the memories-urban collectivities in a process of readaptation.
Ivan Ruiz, Director of the Institute of Visual Arts UNAM / Curator of the exhibition Lo Que Sucede: Adam Wiseman 1998-2018.
This project was financed in part with the generous support of Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) through a grant from the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (SNCA)
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Latin America’s most dynamic trade bloc will hold first E-business Roundtable in the UK
Press Release
- The governments of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, members of the Pacific Alliance, will hold an E-business roundtable in the UK market, at the end of June, to allow 60 leading exporters from these four countries to meet British buyers.
- The Pacific Alliance, a trade bloc formed by these four countries, was launched in 2011 as an in-depth integration process of like-minded countries that believe in the benefits of free trade, based on greater competitiveness, greater growth and greater development.
- Given the global context, the Pacific Alliance has reinvented itself with an ambitious action plan to promote trade between its exporters and importers from different markets worldwide, moving forward with E-business Roundtables in different markets, starting with the UK.
London, June 5th, 2020. – The trade promotion offices of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, members of the Pacific Alliance, announced today their plans to organise a virtual matchmaking roundtable to allow leading exporters from these economies to meet and do business with buyers in the United Kingdom.
This endeavour comes as a response to the disruption of international trade and the challenges on food supply caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which are affecting companies (especially SMEs) and consumers worldwide. As a result, Prochile, ProColombia, Promperú and the Ministry of Economy of Mexico, have decided to transform the 8th Business Matchmaking Forum of the Pacific Alliance –which would have been held in Santiago in June this year– into three market-focused roadshows under the name: “e-Business Roundtables”. These activities will reach several priority markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, starting with the UK in June 2020.
Considering the huge potential of a market with over 66 million consumers undergoing significant adjustments in consumption trends and supply chains, the Pacific Alliance is partnering with strategic British stakeholders including the Confederation of British Industry, the British Retail Consortium, the Department of International Trade, Canning House and leading segment associations among others to kick off this initiative in the UK during the week of the 29th of June. This matchmaking round will allow 60 experienced exporters from the four countries in the food and drinks sector to meet with close to 30 of Britain’s leading buyers in this segment, to present their offer of top quality products such as fresh and processed fruits, dry fruits, seafood, cocoa and cocoa by-products, coffee and its by-products, beverages and honey, among others.
"We are convinced that the only way to overcome this crisis and mitigate the damage inflicted by the crisis is through our ability to innovate and be creative. As ProChile, we are leading within the bloc to adapt to the changes that the current context demands of us" said the Managing Director of ProChile, Jorge O’Ryan Schütz.
“These activities will allow us to strengthen our economies as a bloc, particularly on the intra-regional trade and in reaching key markets, such as the UK and Asia. We will present ourselves as a single commercial force and a key ally for businesses, taking advantage of our exporting and productive potential” said Flavia Santoro, President of Procolombia.
Sergio Silva, Head of the Global Economic Intelligence Unit at the Ministry of Economy said: “We are looking for these three e-Business Roundtables among the Pacific Alliance countries with the United Kingdom, Central America and Asia become an opportunity for Mexican companies to establish different trade relations, now that we face a new international reality”.
“This is an important initiative from the bloc to adapt to these new conditions and utilise all the tools at our disposal, to maintain our efforts to strengthen commercial ties between the bloc and our partners. Technology allows us to shorten distances and ensure we continue providing a service to our companies, whilst prioritizing the health of our clients” added Luis Torres Paz, Executive President of PromPerú.
After the UK, the members of the Pacific Alliance will organise similar spaces in Central America, in August, and in Asia, at the end of September.
Registration and contact
UK businesses interested in attending the Pacific Alliance’s e-Business Roundtable, and meeting with exporters from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, can register from today through to the 12th of June in the following link: https://www.prochile.gob.cl/difusion/varios/eRuedas-de-negocios-Alianza-Pacifico/.
Equally, any doubts or requests for further details can be sent to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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Celebrate the National Day of Mexican Cinema with the Mexican Embassy in UK
The Embassy of Mexico in the United Kingdom joins the Secretariat of Culture and the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (IMCINE) in celebrating the National Day of Mexican Cinema with a mini-series of LGBTQ + cinema, available on our website from 14 to 16 August.
PROGRAMME :
Two Claudias
Dir. Frida Meza Coriche
Short Film, 2019, 16:00 min.
Winner of the 2019 Watersprite International Students Festival´s Best Short Film Award in the LGBTQ + category. The main character, Claudia, is a young woman who spends her days working in a second-hand bookstore. One day, after finding a forgotten letter in a book, she starts a journey to deliver it.
Disrupted
Dir. Roberto Fiesco
Feature Film, 2013, 95:00 min.
*If you are interested in seeing the documentary "Disrupted" email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to receive your password.
This acclaimed documentary follows Fernando García and mother, Doña Lilia Ortega, as the pair recall their past as movie performers. Known as the child star “Pinolito” in the 1970s, Fernando now identifies as Coral Bonelli. Both live in vibrant Garibaldi neighbourhood yearning for their past cinematic glory, while Coral courageously assumes a new gender identity.
SUICIDRAG
Dir. Andrea Pérez Su, Arturo Campos Nieto Rangel
Short Film, 2019, 9:53 min.
The Suicidrag collective walk through the streets and nightclubs of Mexico City to raise awareness about gender stereotypes imposed by our society.
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The Foreign Ministry Reiterates Its Call to Avoid Nonessential Travel, Especially Between Mexico and the US
Press Release 112
The Government of Mexico again calls on all Mexican citizens to avoid international travel for recreational purposes or tourism, especially between Mexico and the United States. This is to reinforce the measures taken to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the community and its complications. Furthermore, the steps taken to contain the virus and the continued reduction in the number of flights and air routes have created a great number of logistical complications that will continue over the coming weeks.
Mexican citizens living abroad permanently, especially in the United States, are asked to follow the instructions of their local authorities. They are highly recommended to stay home and avoid all international travel, including to Mexico. Mexicans with permanent residence status in the United States who want to travel to be with their families are urged to temporarily avoid nonessential trips to Mexico. Measures to contain the virus have recently been put in place in both countries, including limitations on border crossings and fewer flights.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to provide all possible consular assistance and protection within the current limitations on travel and access.
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