Mexico shows enthusiasm for Switzerland

There was a big welcome for Joseph Deiss (left) from Mexican president Vicente Fox and his wife Keystone

The Swiss president, Joseph Deiss, says his three-day visit to Mexico - the first by a Swiss president – has been “very positive”.

A delegation of Swiss business leaders who accompanied Deiss have also expressed satisfaction about their visit.

“I have rarely felt in such a distant country such a high interest in Switzerland,” commented Deiss to journalists after a visit to the pyramids of Teotihuacan.

He said that contacts with the political leaders of the central American country had been “very good”.

Deiss, who is also Switzerland’s economics minister, explained that Mexico wanted to be treated separately from its big neighbour, the United States.

Good relations

The Mexican president, Vicente Fox, had told him, both during this visit and during Fox’s official visit to Switzerland, that the two countries had to strengthen their already good relations.

“What do we have to do to strengthen our ties? We have to meet each other,” Deiss said.

He placed bilateral relations at the centre of his trip and like Fox wanted to open the doors for trade.

Economic ties were also the most important issue in the talks that Deiss held with Fox and his ministers.

Although trade had fallen in the past few years, Swiss exports to Mexico had increased by 25 per cent in the first nine months of this year, he noted.

Trade agreement

Deiss also mentioned that the free trade agreement which came into force in July 2001 between Mexico and the European Fee Trade Association, of which Switzerland is a member, had brought good results.

According to the president of the Swiss-Mexican Enterprise Association, Karl Frei, there are 376 Swiss companies active in Mexico, employing almost 27,000 people.

But he said economic ties could be intensified, particularly in the service sector and investments.

“There are still problems in Mexico concerning legal security, the protection of patents and corruption,” commented Frei.

He added that the Mexican government was aware that efforts needed to be made on these issues.

Satisfied

A delegation of captains of Swiss industry which accompanied Deiss, led by the Swiss Business Federation president, Ueli Forster, said they were also satsifed with the visit.

This form of collaboration between the government and the business world made contacts that “we would not have had otherwise”, Forster said.

During the visit, Swiss entrepreneurs doing business in Mexico also presented a code of conduct to the Mexican minister of Public Affairs, Edoardo Romero Ramos.

The code commits companies to respect a number of ethical rules and includes a ban on bribes and cartel agreements.

The first of its kind in the world, the code was described by Deiss as a factor that would “strengthen the image of Switzerland”.

He added that it would show that the country not only produced products of high quality but was also correct in the way it carried out business.

swissinfo with agencies

Key facts

376 Swiss companies, employing almost 27,000 people, are active in Mexico.
In the first nine months of the year Swiss exports to Mexico increased by 25 per cent.
Mexico is Switzerland’s second-largest Latin American trade partner.
Switzerland is the fifth-largest investor in Mexico.

In brief

Joseph Deiss was the first Swiss president to pay an official visit to Mexico.

In talks with the Mexican president, Vicente Fox and several member of the Mexican government, both sides spoke in favour of an expansion of their economic ties.

Deiss was accompanied by a delegation of Swiss business leaders.