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Mexico bid to join Mercosur as
associate member
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis
Ernesto Derbez said on Friday
that his government had formally
requested the accession to the
Common Market of the South (Mercosur)
as an associate member.
Speaking to press after the 30th
Mercosur summit's plenary
session, Derbez said he had
formally expressed "Mexico's
interest in being considered for
an associate membership of
Mercosur."
Derbez was a special guest at
the summit that took place on
Thursday and Friday in the
Argentine city Cordoba. Mexico
has been a Mercosur observer
since 2004.
The foreign minister said he
hoped an associate membership
deal would be clinched by the
end of Mexican President Vicente
Fox's term that expires on Dec.
1.
Derbez said Brazil had cast
aside doubts about having Mexico
asan associate member, when Fox
and Brazilian President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva met on
Sunday in Russia's St.
Petersburg on the sidelines of
the G8 summit, where both were
special guests.
Mercosur and Mexico began
negotiating a free trade
agreement, the first between the
bloc and an outside nation, a
year ago. But there have been
few significant advances.
South Americans accuse Mexico of
paying little attention to them,
but "Mexico is really a country
that has been looking south and
asking to be an associate member
for the last four years," Derbez
argued.
Mexico is a member of the North
American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), which also includes
Canada and the United States.
Mercosur does not allow members
to have free trade agreements
with other nations outside the
bloc.
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