Mexican official calls for collaboration to boost trade with China

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Mexico's trade with China could grow faster through appropriate cooperation between the two countries, a Mexican official said Monday.

    "(Mexico's) trade with China is dominated by U.S., Canadian and Japanese companies that buy in China to supply factories here that export to the United States," Amapola Grijalva, executive vice-president of the Mexico-China Chamber of Commerce and Technology, told Xinhua in an interview.

    Grijalva, who also runs the trade consultancy WTC Group, said Mexican products that rely on such suppliers include toys, autos, shoes and leather goods. According to Grijalva, some companies buy as much as 90 percent of their supplies in China.

    While trade in this area is supporting Mexico's export industry, the lifting of quotas in particular is a key step to boost trade and investment between Mexico and China, she added.

    "First comes trade, and then comes investment," Grijalva said.

    In July 2008, Mexico and China signed an investment protection agreement that came into effect last month. But Chinese firms are unlikely to profit from this agreement, as many Chinese goods still face triple-digit compensation quotas at the border, she noted.

    "There are still over 200 products that face anti-dumping quotas, many of them above 100 percent," Grijalva said.

    Last October in Peru, Mexico and China signed a treaty in which Mexico promised to end all such tariffs by December 2011. The tariffs, which were introduced as a temporary measure after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, should have been phased out by 2008.

    In Grijalva's opinion, the tariffs have failed in protecting Mexico's industry, created discrimination and stifled opportunities that might have arisen.

    "We believe that a lifting of the quotas will result in an increase of value added tax receipts by the Finance Ministry," Grijalva said.

    Meanwhile, Chinese firms are also expanding into Mexico via their subsidiaries in the United States.

    More Mexican goods will be exported to China once the markets are further opened, Grijalva believed.

    "There are demands in China for citrus fruits, jellyfish, iron, coal, pork, beef, coffee, manganese, silver and gold," she said.

    Grijalva noted that China could use Mexico as bridge to expand into the rest of Latin America.

    The Mexican Ministries of Agriculture, Finance and Economy should seize this unique opportunity to cooperate with each other and their Chinese counterparts. This would boost trade between the two countries, she proposed

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