Mexico and Nigeria are committed to scaling up their bilateral trade relations, which has a relatively low current value of approximateley 180 million dollars.
Mexican Ambassador to Nigeria Alfredo Miranda said this in an interview on Monday.
Miranda said that of this amount, Mexico recently committed about 100 million dollars to import from Nigeria hibiscus flowers alone, locally known as ‘Zobo,’ which is in high demand in Mexico.
He said that toward enhancing the trade relations between the two countries, two Mexican business delegations also visited Nigeria recently, adding, “it’s work in progress.”
“Both countries have high potentials and high capacity; they have potentials in oil and gas, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, technology transfer, etc.
“We are assiduously working together to achieve the goals, aims and objectives of scaling up our bilateral trade relations.
“In conducting our trade relations, we are considering how to transfer raw materials here, as well as value added tax, among others.
“The main challenge is that most Mexican businessmen prefer to do business with the U.S. because of our close proximity and their prompt payments,” the envoy added.
The diplomat said that Mexico’s strategic geographical location in Central America, which is close to the U.S., makes it a gateway to Latin America.
“We are in a central location that facilitates trade, cultural exchange, and political alliances between our different regions.
“This is the location for connecting global supply chains in the economy.
“We have plenty of natural resources and a working population of 130 million inhabitants.
“The labour capacity that we have is very important.
“We are doing pretty well, economically speaking, with a growth of 4.9% in June and huge foreign exchange reserves.
“We are the ninth largest exporting economy in the world with about 593 billion dollars, and the capacity to do bilateral trade with almost zero tariffs,” he said.
Mexico’s foreign policy thrust, he said, is anchored on the principles, which are recognized in Article 89, Section 10, of the country’s constitution.
These, he said, included respect for international law, equality of sovereign states and their independence, non-intervention in other countries’ domestic affairs.
Miranda added the promotion of bilateral relations, as well as multilateral cooperation, as being among other principles of Mexico’s foreign policy.