Turning back now to the big news on Saturday… As we reported, the Mexican President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, made his first official visit to Belize 4 days ago.
His trip was a very brief, 4-hours since he was on a whirlwind Central America and Cuba tour. But, the bilateral talks between him and Prime Minister John Briceño have resulted in a historic agreement between Belize and Mexico.
In his official remarks, President Lopez Obrador said quote, "We have an agreement with the Prime Minister so that Mexico could remove our tariffs on products that Belize could export into our country… They will be able to export from Belize to Mexico, food products, agricultural products, beef, and…basic food products, without paying the customs duties, suspended tariffs." End quote.
That's a major taxation relief being offered to Belize's farmers and agro-producers who want to export into the Mexican market. Today, Prime Minister Briceno went into greater detail on how he and his team convinced President AMLO to reach this agreement after years of discussions:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We had the opportunity then to meet last year with the president of Mexico, better known as AMLO. We were under a tent just him, his foreign minister, myself ou Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay, and our both ambassadors. We should have been [in] a twenty-minute meeting. We ended up spending more than an hour. So you know, I was talking to him, Belize and what we're doing, and that if we can remove these taxes, you know, it would create a great opportunity for us. When he came again on Saturday, the night before, the technical teams from Mexica and Belize were grappling and fighting over the wording that we were going to put on trade. But, when I met with him, you know, that migration is a massive problem in the region and 'Sembrando Vida' is about migration, where they would give money to small farmers in the rural areas, so that instead of leaving, and trying to go to Mexico to the United States, they stay on work at home. Well, 'Sembrando Vida' is one of the hallmark programs that the President of Mexico is promoting. And so, we pointed out to him that we have just announced an amnesty program whereby we are going to - it's probably as many as 40,000 people that are living in Belize. They have been here for many, many years, and we are going to legalize their status. I believe that had a lot to do with his change of mind because when he said, 'that's admirable what you are doing.' He said, 'We wish more countries would do what you are doing - what we are doing here in Belize.' And then, he started to ask us what are the products that we have? I said rice, beans, pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, and fish. And on the second night, I was telling him, I said, 'Mr. President, we don't want the market in Monterrey. All we need is a market in Quintana Roo. That's more than enough for us. 'So imagine,' I said, 'We can farm the fish and the and the shrimp in the morning, and by the evening, it's on the plate of people to eat in Cancun. And that's when he said, well, you don't, then I think it's best that we're supposed to do this for you. They are also converting a part of Quintana Roo, part of the border towns. In this case, it would be Chetumal, in a duty-free zone. So to offset that, they said, 'Ok, We can then provide this for Belize, to create opportunities for farmers and then to allow our farmers to stay in the rural areas and not have to (a) come into urban areas where jobs are limited, or (b) trying to go to the United States. So it was a win-win, and it's very, very exciting. And yes, within a historical context, it was a historic decision, I think. that we managed to negotiate and convince the president of Mexico. And for that, we are extremely grateful for his generosity."
