Today's House Meeting was the first opportunity for the Prime Minister to give his fellow parliamentarians and the country a full report on last Saturday's official visit to Belize by the Mexican President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. And, to beat his chest more than a little on any politician's biggest platform: The House of Representatives.
As reported, the ongoing bilateral talks between the PM and the Mexican President have resulted in an important agreement where the Mexican Government has agreed to waive all taxes on exports of basic food items - including cattle and shrimp - from Belizean agro-producers. Here's an excerpt of the Prime Minister's glowing report on President AMLO's visit:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"His Excellency President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the president of the United Mexican States, Mexico, paid an official visit to Belize along with his delegation. President Lopez Obrador was the sixth Mexican president to visit our shores. The first president was Miguel de la Madrid in1988. For the record, every Belizean Prime Minister has made a working visit to Mexico during their time in office. We were very pleased to learn of the decision by the government of Mexico to waive all duties and tariffs payable on Belizean agricultural items or products such as shrimp, cattle, meat, and other basic food exports from Belize to Mexico. I can remember very clearly between 1998 and 2008; we worked very hard to be able to get our rice, Belizean rice, to be exported to Mexico. That is Plan Belize in action. And we have the issue with rice, beans and sorghum, and all these other products that can be grown in Belize and can be exported competitively to Mexico. These generous commitments will now pave the way for an expedited trade and investment facilitation between our two countries. To these decisions to give effect to these decisions, I have instructed the relevant ministers to move with urgency to form teams of experts to pursue negotiations with their Mexican counterparts. We expect that the National Trade Negotiating Commission will play an integral role in conducting the necessary agreements on trade."
