7th Meeting of the High Level Group of the Pacific Alliance Draws to a Close

Press Release No 193/12
Mexico City, August 24, 2012 

The 7th Meeting of the High Level Group (HLG) of the Pacific Alliance, formed by Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile, ended today in Puerto Varas, Chile. The Mexican delegation was headed by the Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norma Pensado, and by the Undersecretary of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economy, Francisco de Rosenzweig.

During the HLG meeting, the Undersecretaries of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of the four member countries discussed ongoing issues including the strengthening of the institutional structure of the Alliance, business initiatives, transport, aviation interconnectivity, tourism cooperation, the free movement of people, the approach to the Asia Pacific region and the granting of scholarships to roll out the student mobility platform.

The meeting also addressed the progress and current situation of the four technical groups of the Pacific Alliance: trade and integration, services and capital, movement of people and cooperation.

The Pacific Alliance seeks to build an integration that allows the free flow of goods, services, capital and people; drives towards greater growth, development and competitiveness of the member economies, and becomes a global platform, with special emphasis on Asia-Pacific.

For Mexico, the Pacific Alliance partners represent a growth market with a population of 93 million.

As a whole, the Pacific Alliance is the third largest receiver of Mexican exports in the world, behind only the US and Canada. In 2011, Mexico sold US$8.991 billion to the bloc.

Mexico invests more than US$23 billion in the Alliance countries, 32 percent of its total FDI in Latin America.

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