“And when you arrived on our soil, you brought your talents and energies to deepen the cultivation of our fields, to broaden the output of our factories, to illuminate the learning in our classrooms, to construct and honor new homes and, together with us, to make the Mexican nation greater.”
With those words, President Lázaro Cárdenas addressed Spain’s Republican government in exile, welcomed by Mexico when fleeing the Civil War.
Nearly a century later, the force of that bond feels stronger than ever as the European Parliament approves the Modernized Global Agreement between the European Union and Mexico, set to redefine the relationship between two allies with deep political and economic ties, coming together on equal terms to give a decisive boost to their association.
“The Modernized Global Agreement between the EU and Mexico is an instrument that redefines the relationship between two allies with deep political and economic ties”
After almost a decade of negotiations, approval of this agreement is no small event. Signed in May at the bilateral summit in Mexico City, the pact is more than a revision of political and trade practices: it is a recognition of our need to cooperate as much as possible with strategic allies who share our vision of the world.
An ambition to increase commercial links
From a global perspective, Mexico has established itself as a central player in the value chains of numerous productive sectors —and as a fundamental EU trading partner in the region, with European investment in Mexico exceeding €207 billion in 2024.
Hence the importance of this agreement, which eliminates barriers in practically every area —95% of current tariffs disappear— and which updates mechanisms to protect investments, boosting certainty for European and Mexican operators alike. These terms will facilitate operations for the more than 45,000 European companies that export to Mexico, most of which are SMEs that will benefit especially from the harmonization of regulatory standards.
Moreover, for the first time in history, the agreement opens the possibility of public procurement in 14 of Mexico’s 32 states, permitting European companies to access state investment in the country. The new framework also safeguards 568 European geographical designations such as Rioja wine and Manchego cheese, strengthening protection and giving solid guarantees to our producers.
Spanish industry is among the great beneficiaries of this agreement. Mexico is the leading destination in Latin America for Spanish exports of goods and services; more than 5,600 Spanish companies are based there, with a particularly strong presence in the agri-food sector, where Spain accounts for 37% of all European exports to Mexico.
“Mexico is the leading destination in Latin America for Spanish exports of goods and services, and more than 5,600 Spanish companies are based there”
All of this comes in a context where Spain and Mexico are looking to re-strengthen bilateral relations, especially since the visit by President Claudia Sheinbaum, at the invitation of President of the Government Pedro Sánchez, to the In Defense of Democracy summit of progressive leaders last April in Barcelona. This was not a casual trip but the first visit to Spain by a president of Mexico in eight years.
That gesture has been complemented by trips to Mexico by King Felipe VI and various members of the Government of Spain. At those meetings, the Executive set a clear direction for the future of our bilateral economic relationship: Spain intends to double bilateral trade with Mexico by 2030.
In addition to strictly technical aspects, the signing of the EU-Mexico agreement speaks to a foreign and trade policy that aims to go beyond the transactional. Perhaps the best examples are the legally binding obligations included in the areas of environmental, labor, and social protection. Those elements enshrine respect for the objectives of the Paris Agreement while encouraging Mexico to ratify key conventions of the International Labor Organization.
This means safeguarding greater protections for workers, and it underlines the importance of the EU’s continuing focus —not always easy to sustain— on using trade negotiations as a tool to promote decent work, rejecting the “race to the bottom” logic that dominated free trade agreements over recent decades. This is “the Brussels effect” at its best.
“It’s important that the EU continue to use trade negotiations as a tool to promote decent work”
An agreement like this is more than just a legal framework —it’s also a vehicle for opportunities. One good example is the launch of a package of joint investments under the Global Gateway initiative —the EU’s programme for external investment— for projects in renewable energy, sustainable mobility, and biomedical research. Guided by sustainable development criteria, the €5 billion package seeks to promote the development of high value-added sectors.
MEP Hana Jalloul at the plenary session of the European Parliament on political and economic cooperation with Mexico. Photo: European Parliament
Europe speeds the diversification of its trade alliances
The span of the agreement now ratified by Parliament ranges beyond the business opportunities it creates for companies on both sides of the Atlantic. The pact has been adopted at a time when the EU fully understands that its own strategic autonomy requires an acceleration of finalizing new agreements, or strengthening old ones, with partners including South Africa, Australia, and India.
In these times of growing protectionism, Europe and Mexico share some fundamental characteristics: both are firmly committed to international law, and both urgently defend the need to reform the World Trade Organization as a necessary step in resisting unilateralism.
For Europe, this agreement isn’t merely an instrument for boosting exports to a specific partner —it’s a reinforcement of our links with Latin America, where support for rules-based global trade continues to prevail, in spite of exceptions, and where our trade partnership with Mercosur will be as crucial as our alliance with Mexico.
The Trump administration’s tariffs and the rise of controls on exports give our relationship with Mexico much greater importance today than a decade ago, when negotiations began: what started as the updating of a trade pact has become a strategic imperative for our economic security.
“What started as the updating of a trade pact has become a strategic imperative for our economic security”
In other words, the Europe-Mexico alliance represents a key advance on the path that the EU must take to diversify our network of trading partners and reduce our strategic dependencies. A central facet in this discussion is access for European industry to strategic raw materials, with Mexico among the main exporters of minerals like fluorite, copper, and zinc. This is an area of cross-cutting importance in debates on our economic security —in which I have the honor of representing the European Socialists in the Parliament’s Committee on International Trade.
For those small European companies that export to Mexico, for Mexican workers whose labor protections are now linked to this accord, and for women and indigenous communities as well as European energy companies, this agreement must be made tangible and have real consequences.
That has been my priority as negotiator for the European Socialist Group for trade relations with Mexico: to motivate the European Parliament to make it perfectly clear to the Commission and the Member States that this new framework must be more than a collection of words.
“Europe may have to make it clear that all provisions related to respect for sustainable development will remain non-negotiable”
Today, in the wake of Parliament’s approval, an essential step is to ensure that implementation of the agreement contributes to all the aforementioned objectives —and in this regard, civil society must have a voice. If not, Europe will have to correct its course as quickly as possible, to make it clear that all provisions related to respect for sustainable development will remain non-negotiable. To that end, the European Socialists, and in particular the Spanish Socialists, will serve as a sturdy bulwark.
With ratification of the Modernized Global Agreement, the Parliament is sending a clear message that goes beyond the economic and bilateral relationship: that our strategic autonomy and the Union’s influence on the global stage depend more than ever on alliances with all who understand that the multilateral system is not an option, but a necessity.
A fact that many on the right, both in Spain and globally, seem unable to accept.
