Mexico looks to recast its image in the world with WTO candidate

beyondbrics.com

Apr 18, 2013 2:00am by Adam Thomson

Herminio Blanco’s push for the post of director-general of the World Trade Organisation is anything but a solo effort.

Rather, it is the result of a concerted and co-ordinated effort by Mexico’s new administration to recast the country’s image internationally.



There is no doubt that Blanco (pictured), who is now one of the five remaining candidates to fill the top job at the WTO, has impeccable credentials. He was Mexico’s chief negotiator in the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), chief negotiator of Mexico’s accord with the European Union, and also the orchestrator of many other smaller, regional agreements.

Thanks to those efforts, Mexico now has free trade accords with more countries – 44 and counting – than any other nation in the world. As if that were insufficient, Mr Blanco has accumulated extensive experience in the private sector.

But his successful campaign so far also comes thanks to the new administration of centrist President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is trying to reposition the country on the world stage in two ways – first, as a responsible and trustworthy member of the international community; and second, as a champion of free trade and a crusader against protectionism.

It is no accident that Peña Nieto appointed the previous administration’s finance minister as his foreign secretary. It is also no accident that Peña Nieto has started to work on his international standing, most recently by visiting China and Japan. Add to that Mexico’s drive towards the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, and it is clear that Peña Nieto wants to rebrand Mexico’s image abroad along economic and trade lines.

To that extent, Peña Nieto’s administration sees Blanco’s candidacy for the WTO job as a perfect vehicle to project Mexico as a defender of free-trade values and practices globally. The 46-year-old president has personally backed Blanco for the post, and he tasked the country’s foreign ministry, as well as the network of embassies and consulates around the world, to explore ways of promoting the Mexican’s chances wherever and whenever possible.

Leading the campaign co-ordination is Lourdes Aranda, a respected and highly capable member of Mexico’s foreign service, who was a key figure during Mexico’s time in the presidency of the G-20.

Such commitment from the state creates a telling contrast with the experience of Angel Gurría, Mexico’s former finance minister who in 2006 made it to the top job of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development thanks mainly to his own substantial efforts. Greater support from Mexico’s previous administration for Agustín Carstens, Mexico’s central bank governor, may not have changed the outcome of his failure to reach the top post at the International Monetary Fund. But it wouldn’t have hurt, either.

After years of being in the relative wilderness internationally, Mexico needs to reassert itself. A weakened foreign ministry under former President Felipe Calderón, and horrific drugs-related violence back home that repeatedly made international news, has undermined Mexico’s position abroad. An under-performing economy for the first decade of the 2000s only helped to diminish the country’s clout.

Given that backdrop, Peña Nieto has quite some work to do. But he is going about it in the right way.