The European Union and Mexico are moving to upgrade their trade relationship at a time when international markets are being tested by tariffs, geopolitical conflicts and intense upheaval in supply chains. <\/p>\n
According to European Commission President Orsula von der Leyen, the new agreement creates a more stable framework for the two sides to work together to protect trade, increase investment and secure strategic raw materials. <\/p>\n
As she points out, the relationship between the EU<\/strong> and Mexico<\/strong> goes back decades, and the original 1997 agreement was one of the most important trade agreements ever signed by the European Union. This cooperation has led to a fourfold increase in trade between the two sides. <\/p>\n She also referred to the new agreement she signed with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, stressing that today’s circumstances call for closer cooperation and faster decisions. <\/p>\n “The European Union and Mexico have been reliable partners for many decades. <\/p>\n “At a time of increasing geopolitical tensions, it is essential to seize every opportunity to strengthen and deepen our partnership.” <\/p>\n The new agreement places particular emphasis on strengthening trade<\/strong> and investment<\/strong>. The elimination of a large part of the tariffs is expected to benefit both European and Mexican businesses, with particular reference to the agri-food sector. <\/p>\n Mexico is a huge and growing market with more than 130 million consumers, according to the Commission President. The elimination of 99% of tariffs is expected to save around \u20ac100 million per year for the European agri-food sector. At the same time, it will open up new opportunities for producers on both sides. <\/p>\n Particular importance is also attached to the protection of traditional European products. The agreement provides protection against counterfeiting for hundreds of products, including Greek feta<\/strong> and Spanish Rioja<\/strong> wines. <\/p>\n In parallel, Europe is planning \u20ac5 billion of new investment in Mexico in sectors such as clean energy<\/strong>, rail infrastructure, green ports, pharmaceuticals and the circular economy. Von der Leyen underlines that these projects will create new jobs and strengthen the productive base of both economies. <\/p>\n Special emphasis is also placed on critical raw materials<\/strong>, which are now considered to be of strategic importance for the green and digital transition. Mexico is a major supplier of materials such as fluorite, copper and zinc, used in power grids, batteries and clean energy technologies. <\/p>\n The renewed agreement removes tariffs and restrictions in these sectors, with the aim of stabilising supply chains at a time when raw materials are increasingly becoming a tool of geopolitical pressure. <\/p>\n The President of the European Commission also notes that Europe and Mexico share common values and choose cooperation over fragmentation. <\/p>\n “At a time when fragmentation is expanding, we choose open communication and cooperation.” <\/p>\n In conclusion, von der Leyen notes that 2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for Europe’s international trade strategy, as the E.U.The EU has already entered into new agreements with India<\/strong>, Australia<\/strong> and the Mercosur<\/strong> region. As he stresses, the goal is a stronger and safer Europe with greater influence on the international stage. <\/p>\n First published by Protothema<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \n The European Union and Mexico are moving to upgrade their trade relationship at a time when global markets are being tested by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Investment, Tariffs and New Markets<\/strong> <\/h2>\n
Critical raw materials and the geopolitical message<\/strong> <\/h2>\n