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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