Las relaciones económicas entre México y Japón a 120 años del primer acuerdo

Japan was Mexico’s most important partner in the Asia-Pacific region in the postwar period, during which time the two nations consolidated their diplomatic and economic ties with the signing of several cooperation agreements. In the Nineties, their economic relationship took on even greater significance, due mainly to the coming into effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement (nafta) in 1994, which proved successful at attracting Japanese investment to Mexico. A decade later, Japan and Mexico entered into a reciprocal Economic Partnership Agreement (epa), motivated by a desire to recoup their dwindling competitiveness on international markets. In this essay, Melba Falck analyzes the factors that brought Mexico and Japan closer in the Nineties, at a time when Mexico was forging ahead with its program for the relaxing of economic restrictions and Japan was embarking on a series of structural reforms and opening its markets in an attempt to offset slow economic growth. The author then goes on to analyze the course of Mexico-Japan economic relations in the following decades, identifying a strong interrelation between established Japanese investment in Mexico, trade flows between the two countries and the predominant role played by the us market. While there can be no question that the epa has strengthened economic ties and boosted flows of trade and investment between the two nations, there are still challenges to be overcome —challenges that are duly addressed in this essay.