Phil Hogan
Ceist:53 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the current state of relations between Ireland and Mexico and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4287/00]
Written Answers. - Ireland-Mexico Relations.
I am pleased to report an intensification of the relations between Ireland and Mexico against the background of a number of bilateral visits and new developments in our formal diplomatic relations. Bilateral contacts saw the Mexican Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Rosario Green, visit Ireland in March 1999. During her visit, she met the President, the Taoiseach and the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Andrews. This was followed in April by President McAleese's highly successful State visit to Mexico. During this State visit, two memoranda of understanding, on cultural and educational exchanges, were signed in the presence of the presidents of both countries.
On 1 April 1999 the Government announced its decision to establish an embassy in Mexico city. In September 1999, Minister Andrews main tained the momentum of Ireland's new relationship with Mexico when he met Foreign Minister Green in the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. Again, only last month in Strasbourg, one of his final engagements as Foreign Minister was a meeting with Minister Green, when, in his capacity as Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, he welcomed Mexico's new status as an observer to that body.
Mexico in recent years has become an increasingly major economic and political force in Latin America. The importance of the role Mexico plays in that rapidly changing region has been reflected in its active leadership as President of the Rio Group of Latin American countries and in its very effective co-chairmanship of the summit between the EU and the Latin American and Caribbean countries in Rio de Janeiro in June 1999.
The European Commission has recently completed a series of negotiations on trade and economic relations with Mexico. These negotiations were undertaken on foot of the Interim Agreement on Trade and Trade Related Matters, which had been signed on 8 December 1997. The interim agreement is one of community competence and is separate from the Global Agreement on Economic Partnership, Political Co-ordination and Co-operation, which is of mixed competence, and which was signed on the same date. The global agreement was approved by Dáil Éireann on 23 June 1999. The global agreement has consequently been ratified by Ireland.
The results of the trade negotiations conducted by the commission with Mexico are comprehensive in scope and cover the broad range of economic and trade relations between the EU and Mexico, including market access, services, capital movements, public procurement, dispute settlement procedures, rules of origin, anti-dumping safeguards, agriculture, fisheries and customs co-operation. This should result in increased trade and investment flows between the EU and Mexico.
The results were discussed at the meeting of the General Affairs Council on 14 February 2000. The council noted that examination of the results was still continuing. It reaffirmed the political and economic importance of the entry into force of the results by way of a decision of the EU-Mexico Joint Council as soon as possible. It is expected that a meeting of the joint council will be held in Lisbon on 23 March next,en marge of the special European Summit on Employment and that Mexico's President, Sr. Zedillo, will attend.
Mexico is Ireland's most important trading partner in Latin America, accounting for more than 30% of our trade in the Latin American and Caribbean region, and a growing volume of Irish investment. Ireland has been able to accept the results of the negotiations without any difficulty. Ireland fully endorses the global agreement and the interim agreement with Mexico, which are expected to benefit both Mexico and the EU and the member states. The agreements should also assist Ireland to develop its bilateral political and trade relations with Mexico.
Mexico's influence is also felt outside its own region, not least at the United Nations where it is one of Ireland's partners in the new agenda initiative on nuclear disarmament, and in the course of the preparatory work on the convention to ban landmines, Ireland and Mexico worked closely together as members of the central core group which led the negotiations. Human rights is a central element in the dialogue between the EU and Mexico. Ireland, together with its EU partners has welcomed the Mexican Government's increasing willingness to discuss human rights issues with friendly countries and to adopt measures to tackle the systemic human rights deficiencies which exist not only in the state of Chiapas but throughout the country. That the Mexican Government invited the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, to visit Mexico, and that the visit successfully took place last October, is an indication of the constructive attitude of the Mexican authorities to this grave problem. A similarly constructive initiative for observer status was undertaken at the Council of Europe, a body with a particular human rights remit, and it was for this reason that my predecessor was particularly happy that Mexico was able to assume that status during Ireland's Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
I welcome the recent developments in relations between Ireland and Mexico and see these as a sound basis for the construction of closer links between the two countries, both bilaterally and in an EU context, and as co-operating partners on matters of international concern in multilateral fora. The planned visit of the Taoiseach to Mexico in September of this year will provide a timely opportunity to review the progress of these relations, and to set them on a productive path for the future.