It’s happening in Monterrey
David Blackburn 5:08pm
Nick Clegg is in Mexico, striving to build a trade relationship. The Guardian reports that Clegg will address the Mexican Senate, in Spanish. He will concentrate on praising the education
sector, which he hopes to export. There are also plans to open British universities to affluent Mexicans, and Clegg is being accompanied by four universities vice chancellors and David Willetts.
At the moment, trade between Britain and Mexico, the world’s 14th largest economy, is negligible – Clegg claims that Britain accounts for less than 1 percent of rapidly developing Mexico's imports.
There are huge opportunities to expand. UK Trade and Investment has 3 dedicated offices in Mexico and it is advertising nearly 200 potential contracts with Mexican companies; most of them concern the delivery of health and education equipment or major construction projects.
Quite aside from the coalition’s long term trade-orientated foreign policy, UKTI is trying to diversify British trade as a matter of urgency. An official is quoted by the Guardian saying:
‘One or two of our traditional markets are proving a tad more difficult so if we could get more from Latin America, [that would help].’
That’s wonderful understatement. The Arab Spring has stifled British trade to an extent. For example, education, health and finance contracts in Libya have been lost; and, as Daniel explained yesterday, investment elsewhere in the Middle East is being discouraged by uncertainty. It’s likely that exports (and therefore the recovery) are going to be hit, so this trade visit is unexpectedly important.
UPDATE: Here is Clegg's speech.
Previous
Dimoto
March 29th, 2011 5:19pm Report this commentCould you ask Nick to call in on Verity while he's down there. I am sure she'll be glad to see him (wink).
She might even give him and David Willetts a few pointers.
Jez
March 29th, 2011 5:24pm Report this commentGET HIM VERITY!!!!!
porkbelly
March 29th, 2011 5:55pm Report this comment"We're running out of corrupt violent Arab dictatorships to sell weapons to - anyone know some other countries with bribeable leaders?" "Yes, actually, Minster, there's Mexico..."
Verity
March 29th, 2011 6:01pm Report this commentJez - Ahem.
My guess - and it's only a guess because I don't study Mexican economics, is, there is not a lot of wriggle room in the Mexican economy,which is doing well under the Conservative President Calderon (MA from Yale plus two other degrees, so a brain box).
Most foreign trade is absorbed, obviously, by the North American Trade Organisation (NAFTA, which is roughly along the lines of what the Brits and Europeans were promised with the EU, but the N Americans have never sought to expand their original remit: Free trade only. Absolutely nothing political.)
Also, of course, there is lot of trade with Spain, their former colonial master, and with the rest of Latin America (around 600m people).
So what Britain thinks it has to bring to the party, I cannot imagine. Especially lumbered with the binding rope of EU trade-killing rules and regulations.
Obviously, President Calderon won't be involved in trade negotiations and probably won't be motivated to spend his time putting in a guest appearance, but he speaks fluent and literate English without any trace of a foreign accent. But he does not speak it in Mexico. Within Mexico, he speaks to Anglophones through an interpreter.
Good luck to the British, I guess. But with the US and Canada on their doorstep and already in a successful trade agreement, and the entire continents of Central and South America to the south, I can't imagine what the British think they're going to sell Mexico.
However, Monterrey is a charming, sophisticated city, up near the US border, so quite dry and not too hot.
Verity
March 29th, 2011 6:47pm Report this commentPork Belly -You're about five years out of date. The corrupt and disgusting commies were kicked out around nine years ago, with the affable, friendly President Fox coming in softly, softly and didn't frighten the horses. Communism was all most Mexicans had ever known, but he was charming, handsome, beautifully tailored (no shiny suits) and he broke the ice. He spent a lot of time going around schools, talking to young people.
He served out his two terms effectively and now we have the harder, more incisive President Calderon, who is a brain box. Little by little, his team have been reworking the public sector.
It was unthinkable that an American president would visit Mexico under the sleazy commies. But President Bush came down for an official visit to President Calderon to discuss defence and a heliport for the US military on the Gulf. This would never have happened under the commies.
Baron
March 29th, 2011 7:27pm Report this commentcheap coke for us, the Mexicans seem to know alot about it, hard to think what we can offer them, unless they're keen on sharia and stuff.
AJC
March 29th, 2011 7:29pm Report this commentWhere is Prince Andrew? Has Clegg replaced him?
TomTom
March 29th, 2011 8:25pm Report this comment"on praising the education sector, which he hopes to export. "
Exporting Comprehensive Schools sounds grand and bundle them with Comprehensive Universities....be good to get rid of them
Carlos
March 29th, 2011 8:29pm Report this commentErr... It's so not happening in Monterrey, it's in Distrito Federal, which is the capital. Monterrey is in the north of the country.
yank
March 29th, 2011 9:55pm Report this commentWhat Nick Clegg doesn't understand is that the Mexican Senate is the very last place you want to go, if you want to do business in Mexico.
Mexico has been historically ruled by 12 families. Count 'em. 12. Old families... light skinned Spanish... nothin' to do with those unwashed native savages, don't you know. The older English houses might know a thing or 2 about the class based system in Mexico, I'd guess.
A few own the wealth. Wealth distribution? There isn't any. Those people rule.
Now, there has been a slight bit of talk down there in recent years, sure, but the needle ain't moved very much. Suggest Clegg put in a call to those 12 families.
TomTom
March 29th, 2011 10:35pm Report this commentClegg is frankly absurd. I thought Schwesterwelle in Germany was a joke, but Clegg is simply absurd and gawky. He is so ingenue in every sense.....how did those postal votes for Chris Paul-Huhne get delayed in the post ?
HO Lim-peng
March 30th, 2011 12:30am Report this commentI doubt if many people realise that most cement used in building construction in UK is produced by a huge Mexican owned company-Cemex.
Verity - Deracha
March 30th, 2011 2:33am Report this commentYes, I thought there must be some bunfest in Monterrey, according to David's headline. But Carlos is correct. If Clegg is going to be addressing the Senate - why would they want to listen to him? No one in Britain does - it's in DF. (Mexico City.)
I thought it must be some kind of margarita-fest conference in Monterrey (about a thousand miles away from DF, David B!!!).
But what I wrote earlier still applies. I cannot imagine what Britain has to offer Mexico in the way of trade that wouldn't be outclassed, and out-convenienced by what is available to them through Canada and the US via NAFTA.
David Blackburn
March 30th, 2011 8:46am Report this commentCarlos and Verity,
The headline is a rather obscure play on the famous song 'It Happened in Monterrey'. Not at all descriptive of Clegg's trip.
Simon Stephenson.
March 30th, 2011 4:11pm Report this comment"Nick Clegg is in Mexico"
How does he manage to get home by 3.00pm to welcome the children back from school? Or has he taken them with him?
Verity
March 30th, 2011 6:44pm Report this commentDavid Blackburn - Obviously, the title was a play on "It Happened in Monterrey"! Obviously! But the meeting is a thousand miles away, in DF! (Mexico City.) I wrote my post thinking there was some international trade meeting in Monterrey (which is an important city) and thought the headline was clever.
But then, it has nothing to do with Monterrey.
I am sorry to be so turgid. I usually like your headlines and thought this one was clever, until I realised the meeting's in the capital, a thousand miles from the Texas border and Monterrey.
(PS, like the song, though.)
The Yellow Rose of Texas
March 30th, 2011 6:55pm Report this commentLim-Peng - I am one of the ones who didn't know that! How interesting. It's based up near the border in Nuevo Laredo. (About 1,000 miles further west along the border from Monterrey, by the way, David.) You wouldn't think it was worth while shipping concrete all over the world. Live and learn.
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