Mexico signs major treaty with EU

Mexico signalled "a new era" in its relations with Europe yesterday with the signing in Brussels of a major new treaty with the EU. The agreement is more wide-ranging than NAFTA, the trade agreement that Mexico and several Latin American nations have with the US, the Mexicans say. They say it represents an ambitious development of their foreign relations away from the predominant influence of their big neighbour.

The agreement had been complicated by the EU insistence on a standard clause which makes the treaty's application conditional on the observance of human rights. In the end, the clause was left intact, with the Mexicans appending a declaration of their own.

In a statement yesterday the human rights group, Reporters Sans Frontieres, insisted on the stringent application of the clause, warning of serious violations of freedom of the press.

The Economic Partnership, Political Co-ordination and Co-operation Agreement is a three-part treaty that gives an institutional basis to closer political dialogue and strengthens commercial and economic ties.

Political and social co-operation will include work on drug-trafficking and money-laundering as well collaboration on refugees, human rights and poverty.

Mexico has been a recipient of EU development aid, amounting to £8 million in 1995, and has a substantial trade deficit with the EU. In 1996 the EU imported goods worth £2,350 million from Mexico while exporting £3,840 million worth.

Mexico is Ireland's largest trading partner in Latin America.

In a bid to encourage investment in Mexico the EU supports a programme of dialogue between businesses involving up to 10,000 separate encounters between European and Mexican business people in the next few years. The priority areas are construction, agri-business, plastics, car parts, pharmaceuticals and furniture.

The EU has also supported projects on AIDS, street children and the preservation of tropical forests, as well as giving humanitarian aid to refugees from Guatemala and to people affected by natural disasters and civil conflict in Mexico's southern province of Chiapas. It is planning involvement in a major tourist project for a route linking Mexico's historic sites.