Swiss-Mexican visit helps relaunch trade ties

Deiss said there was more to be done to strengthen Swiss-Mexican ties Keystone

An official Swiss visit to Mexico has helped relaunch relations with a key international partner after several years of relative stagnation in trade terms.

That was one of the conclusions drawn by Swiss president Joseph Deiss, who spoke to swissinfo on the final day of his three-day visit.

Deiss said the visit came at a time when trade relations were again improving rapidly, but after two years of relative “stagnation” in the wake of a “rapid start” following the 2001 free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association.

Speaking in Mexico City, he said the visit had come at the “best time” – some two years before the next Mexican presidential elections.

Asked whether the Swiss would have problems of continuity in the event of a change of Mexican president, Deiss said the Mexicans had to contend with a new Swiss president every year.

The president and economics minister said he had “rarely sensed so much interest” in Switzerland during a visit to a country “so far away”.

Deiss, who accompanied a major trade delegation to Mexico, also held political talks with several government ministers and Mexican president Vicente Fox.

He said that, in addition to “confidential discussions” about issues including the re-election of President Bush, the Middle East peace process and United Nations reform, the question of world trade talks was also raised.

The Swiss president said Mexican officials appreciated Switzerland’s initiatives to relaunch discussions after the failure of the last round of talks at Cancun in Mexico, via informal ministerial level talks at this year’s Davos summit.

swissinfo: What were the main goals of the visit, and to what extent have you achieved them?

Joseph Deiss: The main goal was to give a special impetus to our relations with Mexico in general and the Mexican economy in particular. The results are quite positive. On the one hand, we were able to have intense discussions on the political level with the president and with several ministers – the foreign minister and the minister for the economy, as well as the minister for public functions. And, what may be even more important, it was possible to create very good contacts between our business delegation and the Mexican business community.

swissinfo: How important is Mexico to Switzerland, both in political and in economic terms?

J.D.: Economically, Mexico is one important destination for exports – one billion Swiss francs a year is not a small amount. It is also a very important destination for our investments. Switzerland is the fifth largest foreign investor in Mexico. So I would say that we are in a similar position with Mexico, which has 80 per cent or more of its relations with the US and is looking to diversify. We are quite strongly in line with the European Union – 70 per cent maybe in our case – and we have always had a strategy that is oriented worldwide in this field. Latin America is a very important part of the world and, within this part of the world, Mexico is one of the main partners.

swissinfo: To what extent is Mexico of interest to Switzerland as a market in its own right, and to what extent is the interest more in access to the entire North American Free Trade Association market, particularly the United States?

J.D.: I would say that our first interest is certainly in the Mexican market. Mexico has a population of [about] 100 million people, it is a [growing] economy and therefore has a certain potential, and I therefore think that, for many Swiss exports, to take the watch industry as an example, it will become an even more important market. Mexico is also interesting because it has a free trade agreement with the US and direct access to this big market, so it is possible that this can also have positive effects for Swiss exports towards Mexico. But there are also some problems in this respect and that was one point that was raised [during the talks] and which we have to work on.

swissinfo: Relations between Switzerland and Mexico have obviously got moving now, with the visit by President Fox to Switzerland this year followed by your visit here – where do things go from here?

J.D.: I think we gave a lot of signals that there is more work to be done and it is now up to the “technicians” – the people from our administrative sections – to work on that. There are several meetings that will be held, [starting] in the first half of next year. I think that the problems have been recognised and we can work on them.

swissinfo-interview: Chris Lewis in Mexico City

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

Swiss president Joseph Deiss says his official visit to Mexico has helped relaunch relations after a period of stagnation in trade terms.

He told swissinfo that it had been possible to create “very good” contacts between the Mexican business community and a delegation of business leaders which accompanied him.

But he said there was more work to be done to improve ties.