Mexico seeks to bolster ties with China, attract investment

MEXICO CITY - Mexico seeks to continue strengthening comprehensive ties with China and attract investment in the coming years, Foreign Affairs Minister Luis Videgaray said on Monday.

"We want to attract investment and continue to strengthen our ties with China in a comprehensive way," Videgaray told senators from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

At the meeting in the Senate, Videgaray said Mexico has already taken steps to enhance trade ties with other Latin American countries, as well as those in Europe, Asia and Africa, given the changing global landscape marked by US President Donald Trump.

"Regarding China, we have to remember that it is a country with which we have elevated our relationship, the character of our comprehensive strategic partnership, and we are seeing an increase in the flow of trade," said Mexico's top envoy.

While Mexico's most trade with China is in the form of imports, "our exports are also growing," noted Videgaray.

Trump recently withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade deal among more than 10 countries, including Mexico, which will look to expand trade with other signatories of the TPP, said the official.

"We are already in talks" with South Korea, he said.

Despite Trump's divisive initiatives, including building a wall along the US-Mexico border, Videgaray said, "We are going to ... maintain dialogue and we are going towards a process of negotiation."

In the coming months, the two countries are expected to begin renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in force between Canada, the United States and Mexico since 1994.

Trump claims the treaty has benefited Mexico only.