 |
|
|
 Business News | April 2005 
Japan, Mexico Launch Free-Trade Pact
 Wire services
| | Mexican officials said they expect exports to Japan to increase by more than 10 percent a year and want Japanese investment in Mexico could nearly triple from about $450 million a year. |
Japan and Mexico launched a free trade agreement Friday after nearly three years of discussions and delays, with Tokyo hoping to boost exports of autos and electronics to North America and Mexico betting it can lure investment and export more farm products.
The free trade pact, signed last September, will immediately eliminate 91 percent of Japan's tariffs on Mexican goods and 40 percent of Mexico's tariffs on Japanese goods. Other tariffs will be reduced gradually over the next 10 years.
Japan is seeking to boost its shipments of autos, steel and electronics, while Mexico hopes to attract an additional $1.2 billion a year in Japanese investments, generate new jobs and crack open the Japanese market for Mexican pork, avocados and tuna.
Japan's only other free trade agreement is with Singapore.
Mexico has signed 11 free trade pacts with 42 countries, including the European Union.
Shipments between the two countries have been limited.
Last year, Japan's exports to Mexico were $5.2 billion, or 0.9 percent of its worldwide total of $572 billion. In 2003, Mexico exported $1.8 billion in goods to Japan, a fraction of its roughly $170 billion in exports that year and tiny compared to exports of $149.6 billion to the United States.
Mexican officials said they expect exports to Japan to increase by more than 10 percent a year and want Japanese investment in Mexico could nearly triple from about $450 million a year.
Japanese import tariffs on most Mexican produce will be lowered over three to seven years. Tariffs for bananas will be reduced over 10 years.
Pineapples and pineapple juice, candy, wheat and pastas are excluded from the agreement for at least three years.
Japan will be granted tariff-free auto imports for up to 5 percent of the Mexican market, from the current 3 percent, and tariffs will be eliminated over six years.
Tariffs will be lifted immediately on specialized steel products not made in Mexico, used in areas such as the auto parts, electronics and machinery industries.
Tariffs will remain for five years on other steel products that compete with Mexican production, and be phased out over the following five years. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us