On Monday 19 February, Mexico's trade minister Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal confirmed that European commissioners Cecilia Malmström (Trade) and Phil Hogan (Agriculture) could visit Mexico after the 9th round of talks on the trade section of the update of the global EU-Mexico agreement, which will come to an end on 22 February, in order to sketch the outlines of a political agreement.
Guajardo Villarreal gave assurances on Monday that the negotiators had progressed on several issues such as those linked to market access for goods, public procurement and investment.
These chapters and those on the rules of origin, public enterprises, trade in services, intellectual property, the fight against corruption, improvement of the process of settling trade disputes and legal and institutional aspects are also being discussed this week.
"There would only be some issues of high level of complexity, very few, for us the ministers to resolve. We are very close to closing this agreement", Guajardo Villarreal said, as reported by news agency Notimex.
The EU and Mexico want to seal a compromise before the Mexican general election campaign begins on 1 March (with polling on 1 July) (see EUROPE 11963). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)