The european window : challenges in the negotiation of México's free trade agreement with the European Union (Working Paper SITI = Documento de Trabajo IECI n. 9)

Book excerpt: On 1 July 2000 regulations to liberalize trade flows between Mexico and the European Union came into force, after more than six years of diplomatic work and complex negotiations. These regulations are part of the "Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLCUEM), which is also one of the components of the Agreement on Economic Association, Political Concertation and Cooperation ("Global Agreement"). The Global Agreement through its three components - political dialogue, trade liberalization and cooperation- was at the time the most ambitious agreement ever constituted by the EU. The economic association component included in the Global Agreement - the TLCUEM- was the first overseas free trade treaty and served as an important precedent for later EU negotiations with other Latin American countries. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the reasons that led Mexico and the EU to the constitution of this treaty; to describe the main challenges of the Global Agreement negotiations of different components; and to briefly review the results of the first three years since the TLCUEM enforcement.