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Trade negotiations between EU and Mexico

On the 16th of October 2017, the European Commission published a report on the ongoing negotiations after the 5th round having taken place in Brussels in September.

Regarding trade in goods, EU and Mexico reviewed all the articles of the consolidated text on Trade in Goods with substantive discussions on the proposed disciplines. Both parties exchanged information on the rationale behind the proposals, eliminated some brackets and consolidated the proposals on Repaired Goods. The group continued to discuss in detail the articles on Import and Export Restrictions, Export Duties, Administrative Fees and Charges – where the EU tabled additional language, and the text on Import and Export licensing, among others.

Regarding rules of origin, discussions on Product Specific Rules (PSR) led to good progress. Several chapters have been closed and some chapters are about to be closed (including iron and steel). Several  open chapters are pending due to ongoing Mexican consultations (including on agricultural products). Despite the good progress, the Parties recognised that there still remains a lot of work to do. Experts discussed in details the Mexican proposal on PSR for textile and clothing. As regards the text, discussions on verification in Section B and cumulation, duty drawback and accounting segregation in Section A need to continue since only limited progress was achieved on some issues, notably in Section A.

Regarding IPR, the parties made useful progress by continuing to clean the consolidated text and by removing brackets in several areas. The Parties recognize that further work and internal consultations are required to finalise the work on the remaining issues under discussion (including amongst other issues patents, UPOV 91 and border enforcement).

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