By David Ljunggren
(Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives in Mexico City on Thursday for a two-day mission designed to improve recently strained ties and seek a common front in crucial trade talks with the United States.
Carney is due to meet President Claudia Sheinbaum for what he said would be comprehensive talks on matters such as business ties, security and health.
“This is a very important relationship for Canada,” he told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Carney’s trip will be the first bilateral visit by a Canadian prime minister to Mexico in eight years.
Canadian officials briefing reporters on Wednesday described ties as excellent but conceded they could be closer.
“Highest level engagements have been few and far between, so this is an opportunity for us to reaffirm that leader-level engagement,” said one official.
Carney and Sheinbaum are due to hold a working lunch on Thursday and sign a comprehensive strategic partnership as well as boost security ties.
Canada, Mexico and the United States renewed a continental free trade treaty in 2018 but talk of solidarity frayed as U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs.
Bilateral relations soured last year after senior Canadian politicians suggested they would be better off negotiating a solo trade deal with the Trump administration.
Brian Clow, a former senior aide who advised then prime minister Justin Trudeau on North American affairs, said both nations needed to have open, clear and trusting communications.
“It’s not in either country’s interest to be fighting each other when they have one single common goal, which is to hold off Donald Trump and his trade threats,” he said.
Canadian efforts to strike a new economic and defense relationship with Washington have stalled, underlining the need for closer ties with Mexico.
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade deal is to be reviewed next year and Carney says this is now Canada’s priority.
“That is the bigger trading relations(hip) and the focus for the larger trading relationship shifts to there,” he told reporters on September 5.
Sebastian Vallejo Vera, an assistant professor of political science at Western University in London, Ontario, said Canada and Mexico needed to craft a common approach to the review.
“So eventually, when they go out for trade talks again … they are not ganging up on the United States, but definitely not being pitted one against the other, so that they can negotiate from a better position,” he said.
Carney stresses the need for Canada to find new markets. Bilateral goods trade with Mexico in 2024 totaled just C$55.4 billion, compared to C$924.4 billion with the United States.
“Wherever there is untapped potential, in terms of trade diversification … we need to capitalize on it, and Mexico is just a prime example,” said a Canadian official.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa ; Editing by Nia Williams)
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