Mexico and the US will review economic, border and drug issues at APEC

The economic relationship between Mexico and USAthe border, the fight against synthetic drugs, and migration, are the issues that the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will deal with his American counterpart, Joe Bidenthis week during their meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC)The Mexican Foreign Minister, Alicia Bárcena, reported this Tuesday.

“The economic relationship is very important between the two countries. We have reached a trade of US$855,000 million, we are the first trading partner of the United States and the foreign investments that come from the United States, this year we are talking about about US$15,000 million, of a total of US$32,000 million that reach Mexico, almost half”, Bárcena expressed about the meeting between the leaders, which will be next Friday.

The diplomat, who accompanies the Mexican president on a tour in the northern state of Sinaloa, pointed out that the second issue is the development of the border.

“This is being done in coordination with the Ministry of Defense (Sedena) because we have 60 entry points between the United States and Mexico and the idea is to improve the infrastructure on the Mexican side and also on the North American (American) side, as in the case of the Otay sentry box in Tijuana”he pointed.

Synthetic drugs in general are the third issue, explained Bárcena, who said that “Mexico has done a lot of work” and “has a lot to show” on the seizure of methamphetamines.

“We will have to talk about the fentanyl value chain, particularly the precursors that come mainly from Asia and how to better control what leaves Asia, what arrives in Mexico,” he explained.

While the most relevant issue, Bárcena indicated, is that of migration, with very concrete results after the meeting of 10 Latin American governments on October 22 in Palenque, Mexico.

“And (we will talk about) how we can take actions not only between Mexico and the United States, but between all these countries in Central and South America,” Indian

On Monday, López Obrador expressed that he will insist to Biden on a United States aid plan for Latin America to address migration in the region.

The president plans to bring him the proposal reached after the migration summit that Mexico hosted on October 22 with Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Panama and Venezuela, which concluded with a rejection of the “coercive measures” and the request for more legal alternatives for migration.