By Li Hongmei
Chinese President Xi Jinping will head to Mexico on Tuesday after visiting Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica, signaling that China is willing to improve political and trade cooperation with the Latin American nation.
The leaders of China and Mexico will meet for the second time in two months this week, a sign of deepening cooperation, even as Mexico seeks to overcome a trade imbalance.
President Xi will be treated to a lavish three-day state visit in Mexico that begins June 4 with an event at the Campo Marte military field with President Enrique Pena Nieto and a speech to Congress.
Mexican President Pena Nieto, whose six-year term began in 2012, already met President Xi when he visited China in April, in a trip that observers say showed his desire to cast aside old trade rivalries in favor of a closer partnership.
"There is a new dynamic in the relationship between the two countries," Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos de Icaza said. The arrival of two new presidents - Xi took office in March - "opens an opportunity to strengthen political dialogue and find ways to ensure that the flow of trade and investments between both nations is more balanced," he said.
The two sides are due to sign 10 agreements in fields such as trade, investment, infrastructure, science and education.
But Mexico also wants to narrow a trade deficit. Mexico imported US$57 billion worth of Chinese goods last year while exporting just US$5.7 billion, according to the Mexican central bank.
De Icaza said: "We are looking for ways to overcome the trade imbalance between China and Mexico and work together to create the conditions for these trade flows to be more balanced."
"The Chinese side has never intentionally sought surplus in bilateral trade," he told Xinhua news agency.
China, he added, "is ready to join in efforts with the Mexican side to tap into potential, expand the scale and optimize the structure of bilateral trade and seek balance of trade in an active way."
China has expanded its trade and investment ties with Latin America in recent years.
Brazil and Mexico, Latin America's biggest economies, are China's two biggest clients in the region.
While the two nations have been rivals for the US market, Mexico has become an exporter of Chinese products and the two nations could deepen that partnership, analysts said.
Mexico's oil and gas wealth is also attractive to China's energy needs, said Hugo Beteta, director of the Mexico office of the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Another opportunity to enhance cooperation lies in China's interest in investing in infrastructure, he said.
"The Chinese experience offers lessons to Latin America and Mexico on how to pragmatically take advantage of this relationship," he added.
