THE NINTH MEETING OF THE HIGH LEVEL GROUP OF THE PACIFIC ALLIANCE ENDS IN LIMA, PERU

The ninth meeting of the High Level Group (HLG) of the Pacific Alliance—made up of Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile—ended today in Lima, Peru. The Mexican delegation was led by the Foreign Ministry’s Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, Norma Pensado, and the Economy Ministry’s Undersecretary for Foreign Trade, Francisco de Rosenzweig.

The meeting was attended by the Undersecretaries of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

The Undersecretaries discussed various issues, including the guidelines for the participation of observer states to the Pacific Alliance. They also agreed on the guidelines for the technical groups on trade and integration, and services and capital.

In addition, the communication strategy the Pacific Alliance will use to give it worldwide recognition was presented.

During the meeting, the Technical Groups gave progress reports to the HLG. The trade and integration group made proposals on terms of reference for market access and rules of origin, regulatory cooperation and best regulatory practices, and other topics related to sanitary and phytosanitary measures. The services and capital group made progress with proposals on services and investment, among others.

The Undersecretaries will submit their conclusions to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Pacific Alliance that will be held in November in Cartagena, Colombia.

The Pacific Alliance seeks regional integration in order to gradually move towards the free movement of goods, services, capital and people; to foster further growth, development and competitiveness of the member economies; and to become a group with a global role, with special emphasis on the region.
The Pacific Alliance is of interest to Mexico because its membership represents a growing market with a population of 93 million and total imports last year of 167 billion dollars.

The Pacific Alliance, as a whole, is the third largest recipient of Mexican exports in the world, just behind the United States and Canada. In 2011, Mexico’s trade with the Pacific Alliance totaled US$12.5 billion dollars, or 30 percent of total trade with Latin America.

A third of Mexico's exports to Latin America, or US$8.991 billion, goes to the countries of the Pacific Alliance and 23 percent of Mexican imports from Latin American, or US$3.508 billion, come from Alliance countries. Mexico's investment in these countries is more than 23 billion dollars, and accounts for 32 percent of total Mexican investment in Latin America.