On Saturday, August 22, the XVI Free Trade Commission of the Mexico-Chile Treaty concluded with an agreement to explore new regional value chains, according to Infobae. Concurrently, Mexico advanced discussions with Costa Rica on incorporating value chain relocation into the bilateral agenda.
The Ministry of Economy, led by Marcelo Ebrard, explained that the meeting reviewed trade flow developments, investment trends, and regulatory, sanitary, and phytosanitary issues of mutual interest. The move comes amid growing fragmentation of global trade, which according to Expansión is the underlying driver for deepening regional ties and reducing exposure to external risk. For Mexico, the diversification toward Latin America complements the productive chain relocation strategy embedded in Plan México, against a backdrop in which North American integration still concentrates the bulk of its foreign trade. In 2025, trade with Costa Rica reached 3,588 million dollars, a figure that both governments say still has room to grow.
At the session, both delegations signed Decision No. 11, which updates specific rules of origin in line with the Harmonized System 2022 and, according to the Ministry of Economy, provides greater legal certainty for economic operators in both countries. They also agreed to establish a mechanism for exchanging trade statistics, designed to measure how effectively existing agreements are being used. Chile's Deputy Minister of International Economic Relations, Paula Estévez, noted that a relationship built on more than two decades of free trade has room to deepen across trade, investment, services, the digital economy, and value chains. On the Costa Rica front, Deputy Secretary of Foreign Trade Luis Rosendo Gutiérrez Romano met with Vice Minister Arianna Arce Camacho, and Mexico confirmed its commitment to completing the entry into force of the public procurement annex.
The statistics exchange mechanism agreed upon by both parties will allow measurement of how well existing agreements are being used and will support trade policy decisions, providing an input that anticipates the next steps on the agenda. The forward signal is a Latin American integration advancing through bilateral channels, with Mexico broadening its trade partners beyond North America.
This article was drafted with artificial intelligence assistance based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.