Belize and Mexico meet to talk trade
But there is one way to stimulate the economy and that is through trade. And while there are historical ties between Belize and Mexico and there has been constant interaction, there is now a window to develop and strengthen trade relations and to open new business opportunities. Today representatives from both countries met for the first Bi-National Forum on Belize/Mexico Trading 2008 at the Biltmore Hotel in Belize City. And although there is huge trade imbalance, both sides expressed interest in the future of trade.
Hugo Esquinca, Dir. External Affairs, University of Quintana Roo
“There are a lot of things that Belize can offer us. There are the citric, there is meat, you have coffee, products like Marie Sharp, things that we need and we can’t offer in Quintana Roo and Mexico also.”
Jose Sanchez
“When it comes to trade, Mexico has a lot to gain from whatever Belize imports so where is the balance in the trade?”
Hugo Esquinca
“We need a lot of things. Maybe in Mexico we can offer more things that Belize can but we need something that Belize has. And the balance is that the company’s found the person in both countries and do business.”
According to Juan Manuel Salazar, the Mexican Embassy’s point man on Trade, Mexico has traditionally gained more economically from trade with Belize.
Juan Manuel Saldivar, Trade & Tourism, Mexican Embassy
“From January to September this year, the total trade between both nations have been ninety-seven million U.S. dollars. But the part of the exports of Mexico is much bigger than the part of the exports from Belize to Mexico. And that’s one of the problems we want to address in this meeting to find a better way to improve the trade relations between these two countries and to try not just to get a greater amount in the trade but also a greater quality in the products exchanged.”
Lack of competition has affected quality of service in Belize and Mexico intends to break the remaining trade barriers that the business community has feared from the Caribbean Single Market Economy.
Sedi Elrington
“As a nation and as a people, we have been asleep and we continue to be asleep. As you see, I made reference to the fact that ADO, the Mexican Bus company is going to start a bus run from Merida to Belize. That spells the end of any successful prospect that a Belizean company may have had to run passengers from in fact Belize City to Mexico because those bus companies are much more professional, much more efficient, much more competent and capable. But it will not end with the bus. That is what we are faced with and it is not something we can change. We have got to adapt to the situation by becoming competitive. We have got to be very knowledgeable, very informed, very competitive. We have got to stop wasting time, we have got to wake up and smell the roses.”
Jose Sanchez
“The Belize Business community is very small, the representation. How do you feel about that? You’ve come all the way here.”
Hugo Esquinca
“Yeah, this is the first step. We know that we need to do a lot of steps to improve the relationship between Mexico and Belize. Now we may be a very small group but we expect that the second step we will have more Belize representation.”
Juan Manuel Saldivar
“We think that if we can get more products from Belize to Mexico, Belize would be better off.”
Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.
