Mexico and the European Union agree to government purchases in the TLCUEM
Mexico and the European Union concluded negotiations on government purchases in the process of modernizing the TLCUEM.
In the negotiating process, the European bloc set itself the objective of Mexico opening its market in the states that represent 62.5% of the country’s total GDP.
For its part, Mexico promised to achieve «minimum coverage» of public entities for the states and municipalities that offer access to bidders in the European Union, as part of the agreement in principle on the modernization of the TLCUEM reached in April 2018. .
This is the first time that Mexico has opened public procurement at the subnational level in a trade agreement.
The Secretary of Economy, Graciela Márquez, and the Commissioner for Trade of the European Commission, Phil Hogan, had a telephone conversation on Tuesday, in which the Commissioner informed him that the negotiations for the modernization of the commercial pillar of the TLCUEM have concluded.
Hogan reported that the Mexican proposal for the government procurement chapter at the sub-federal level has been accepted by the EU Member States.
With this, the negotiation process of the agreement that started in June 2016 is concluded. The modernized agreement is of the latest generation and includes new disciplines such as energy and raw materials, sustainable development, small and medium-sized companies, good regulatory practices, transparency. and anti-corruption, among others.
TLCUEM and government purchases
To reach this agreement, the federal government of Mexico carried out negotiations with the states and municipalities, because it is the only one that can negotiate free trade agreements, which will open more opportunities for public procurement for companies in the European Union than for any of your other business partners.
After the negotiation, it will be necessary to conclude with some procedures for the TLCUEM to enter into force. Among them, the legal revision of the agreement -already with significant progress- and soon the translation into all the languages of the EU.
Subsequently, the Commission proposal will be transmitted for signature. Once the Agreement is signed by both parties, it will be submitted to the legislative bodies for consideration.
