La Jornada: SRE: the European Union approves the Interim Trade Agreement

The Council of the European Union (EU) unanimously approved, with the support of its 27 member countries, the Interim Trade Agreement with Mexico, reported yesterday the Mexican ambassador to the EU, Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, and member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).

“The EU Council unanimously approved the Interim Trade Agreement between Mexico and the EU among its 27 member countries, completing the internal approval process,” the diplomat wrote on platform X.

Moctezuma Barragán explained that, as it is a matter of exclusive competence of the EU, the Interim Trade Agreement does not require ratification by the member states, unlike the Mexico-EU Modernized Global Agreement (AGM), which must go through that process in each country. Once Mexico formally receives the Interim Trade Agreement and, if applicable, it is ratified by the Mexican Senate, the instrument enters into force two months later.

The negotiations to modernize the bilateral relationship framework, in force since the so-called Global Agreement of 2000, concluded on January 17, 2025. The result was divided into two instruments: the AGM, which includes the political and cooperation pillars, in addition to the commercial one, and the Interim Trade Agreement, which covers only the trade components that are the exclusive competence of the EU.

According to figures from the European bloc, bilateral trade in goods exceeded 82 billion euros (around 1.63 trillion pesos) in 2024, while in services it was around 26 billion euros (about 517.66 billion pesos) in 2023. Mexico is the EU’s second trading partner in Latin America, and the European bloc is, in turn, the second largest foreign investor in the country.