Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Mexico, Turkey to work on trade

Wednesday, 18 December 2013 00:10 
BY MAURILIO SOTO
The News


President Enrique Peña Nieto and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gül signed a memorandum of understanding in Ankara on Tuesday establishing their mutual agreement to work toward a free trade deal between the two countries.

“We have signed on to terms of reference for a free trade agreement that we will be working on in the coming months,” Peña Nieto told the press in the Turkish capital, adding that negotiations will begin in the first quarter of 2014.

“This meeting confirms something very important. As we say in Mexico, ‘tenemos muchas ganas,’ and saying we have ‘muchas ganas’ means that we want to and are willing to create a strong relationship that will bear fruit for our people.

According to Gül, both countries can provide the other with an enormous trade potential, as Turkey can access the markets of other Latin American countries through Mexico, which can in turn trade with the Caucasus, Balkans, Russia and Central Asia through Turkey.

“We know that the potential between both countries is enormous, and I believe that this visit will allow us … to begin on a free trade agreement between Mexico and Turkey,” he said.

Peña Nieto said that Mexico and Turkey share many similarities as rising economic powers, adding that they also participate in many of the same multilateral forums and groups, such as the G-20 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The memorandum signed between Peña Nieto and Gül establishes a bilateral commission for discussion of political, commercial issues, along with other areas of cooperation such as the fight against organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism. The commission will meet twice a year and will be led by the foreign affairs secretaries of both countries.

Peña Nieto and Gül also signed an agreement on avoiding double taxation and cooperating on customs matters.

Both presidents said that they want to open direct flights to Mexico on Turkish Airlines and adopt measures to make it easier for Mexican and Turkish citizens to obtain visas in the other country.


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