not always. The United Kingdom has ruled out the possibility of joining the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC).
The British ambassador to Mexico, John Benjamin, explained that the reports about the inclusion of his country in the tripartite agreement were misunderstanding.
This was a misunderstanding. We have no desire to join T-MEC because of that It’s a tripartite agreement […] From what I understand, this treaty does not even contain clauses allowing other countries to join,” he explained this Friday during the opening of the new UK embassy in Mexico.
However, note that Yes, a bilateral agreement is required with both Mexico and the United States. In addition, the British Government is undertaking administrative work to accede to the Comprehensive and Progressive Treaty for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TIPAT).
Newly appointed British chancellor Elizabeth Truss has arrived in Mexico and has held several meetings this week with senior officials from the federal administration. Among them, he highlighted his meeting with the Minister of Economy, Tatiana Clauther, with whom he prepares the ground for formal negotiations on a free trade agreement.
Ambassador Benjamin announced that negotiations would begin soon and that his government hoped to sign the treaty by the end of 2022.
“We are very close to the official opening of the Mexican-British negotiations towards a new free trade agreement […] “We have a very ambitious goal of being able to conclude both agreements (T-MEC and TIPAT) until the end of next year,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin said the agreement would cover “everything,” though Chancellor Truss commented that the negotiation plan is to deepen Business relationship in areas such as services and technology.
We will soon embark on a deeper bilateral business relationship. I declare that we will advance particularly in areas such as technology, data, digitization and services.
Elizabeth Truss also met this week with officials from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and had a call with the head of foreign relations, Marcelo Ebrard. He also met with the Prime Minister of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum.
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