Since easing of trade barriers, Mexico cashing in
Like big goose eggs the color of money, avocados slide down the conveyor belt at Gerardo Perez’s packing plant to be sorted, boxed, then loaded onto trucks for the caravan north to the U.S. market.
“Business has never been so good,” said Perez, co-owner of Avocado Export Co., a modern low-rise packing house dwarfed by surrounding fruit trees.
Perez’s crop is but a trickle in a river of avocados flooding the United States from Mexico, where exports have more than doubled in volume this year over last as growers finally attain unimpeded entree to the U.S. market after eight decades of barriers. Many packinghouses are working multiple shifts to feed U.S. demand. It is growing 15 percent a year.
“It is going to remain this way,” Perez said. The opening of the U.S. market “has changed the industry for good.”
So sure are Perez and partner Miguel Torres of a continuing bonanza that they hired 20 additional workers this year — a 50 percent bumping up of the payroll — and invested $4 million in a computerized sorting system to more efficiently box their Señor Avo brand of fruit.
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Mexico's 'boutique wine' renaissance
The school band practises noisily outdoors in the sleepy town of Porvenir, where olive trees line the dusty roads.
Directly opposite, there is a school of a different kind, where locals are learning the true value of the grape vines that festoon the landscape in the beautiful but rugged Valley of Guadalupe.
Wine arrived in Baja along with the Spanish colonial-era priests.
But the collapse of trade barriers since the late 1980s, opened up Mexico's small wine industry to foreign competition, and the market began to wither.
Some wild enthusiasts are calling this place the "next Napa Valley"
Mexico opposes US plan to build more barriers along border
Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said Wednesday that Mexico opposed the US plan to build more separation walls along the border between the two countries.
The plan will not help resolve the problem of illegal migration that bothers the two countries, Derbez told reporters.
The Mexican objection to the walls is not directed against the United States or President George W. Bush but rather the country's long-standing stance on migration, he said.
Mexico opposed walls along any borders, anywhere in the world, including the ones in Gaza, said the foreign
Indo-Mexico trade set to reach new high
Bilateral trade between India and Mexico is expected to grow exponentially with exports from India poised for major growth in the coming years.
Aiming to boost trade ties between the two countries and diversify India's exports, businessmen from India and Mexico held several interactions during a three-day exhibition here, showcasing Indian engineering products, services and technologies. Besides issues relating to bilateral trade, they also explored possibility of joint ventures and the factors that inhibit the expansion of trade between the two countries.
Organized by Indian Export Promotion Council, the exhibition generated direct business
UPDATE 2-Mexico central bank holds interest rates steady
Mexico's central bank held interest rates steady on Friday, although it is widely expected to push them lower later this month to help a struggling economy.
With manufacturing output weak, the central bank began pushing rates lower in August and markets expect further cuts ahead, but analysts differ over whether policy-makers will pause in the easing cycle as the race for July 2006 elections heats up.
The bank said in its twice-monthly policy review on Friday it was keeping its money market "short" steady at 79 million pesos a day and made no change
South Korea Speeds Up FTA With Mexico
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun’s visit here will likely be a great challenge for the two countries, which are haggling over a free trade agreement (FTA) across the Pacific Ocean.
During the state visit by President Roh to the Central American nation from Sept. 8 to 10, South Korea hopes to speed up negotiations for an economic partnership agreement (EPA), which includes an FTA and other measures for economic cooperation.
The two countries have been in consultation on the matter since May last year when they launched a joint study team for the EPA.
Europe and US still split over next Doha move
The US and European Union remain starkly divided over who must take the initiative to end the deadlock in the Doha round of world trade talks, as trade ministers approach their next opportunity to make progress at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next weekend.
Comments by Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, and Rob Portman, US trade representative, have quashed hopes that there has been a significant change of heart since the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December left central issues unresolved.
Speaking on Monday in Berlin, Mr Mandelson insisted
Mexico hopes to join Mercosur in 2006
Mexico is working with Mercosur members to join the South American trade block sometime late next year, the country's foreign minister said Thursday.
Luis Ernesto Derbez told a news conference that he will be working with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay during a Dec. 9 meeting to ensure that joining Mercosur wouldn't conflict with Mexico's other trade agreements in the region.
The meeting is scheduled to take place in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Mexico is currently a so-called Mercosur "observer," meaning it is allowed to participate in the trade block's meetings.
In July 2004, however, Mexico asked to become
Mexico seeks international support against deadly US border wall
US lawmakers proposed to build some 700 miles of barriers to stop illegal immigration from the South.
Sixteen years after the fall of the Berlin wall, another barrier of bricks is being fuelled to separate two nations and stop immigration. A proposal by U.S. lawmakers to build some 1,130 kilometers of barriers along their nation's southern border as part of efforts to stop illegal immigration has irritated Mexicans, who are seeking international support to block Washington's plans.
The Mexican Congress is asking legislatures in Spain, Portugal and Latin American countries to join a coalition
Mexico reports trade gains
Mexico posted an unexpected trade surplus in April as exports climbed, buoyed by near-record high oil prices and growing U.S. demand for Mexican-made automobiles, a report said Wednesday.
Exports rose 13.9 percent in April from the same month a year ago, a Finance Ministry report showed. Imports rose 7.3 percent. The country posted a trade surplus of $464 million after a $147 million deficit in March.
Economists had expected a trade deficit of $330 million, according to a Bloomberg survey.
Were still seeing very strong growth compared to previous years, David Franco, an economist for JPMorgan Chase & Co. in
UPDATE 4-Mexico holds rates steady, sees inflation easing
Mexico's central bank on Friday said it expects inflation to drop inside its target range this year, but refused to ease monetary policy for now and insisted that interest rates should remain high.
The central bank board said after its twice-monthly policy meeting it was keeping its money market "short" steady at 79 million pesos a day. An increase in the short reduces overnight lending to banks and tends to push interest rates higher.
Although the bank said it sees inflation falling inside the target range of 2 percent to 4 percent this year, it
