FTA Panama. (New Business).

Free-trade negotiations between Mexico and Panama are moving fast. So fast in fact, that authorities on both side are openly expecting to have the final draft ready before the second quarter.

Closer trade relations will facilitate the process of Mexico's economic integration with Central America as defined by the Puebla-Panama Plan, a long-term pact that seeks to generate sustainable socio-economic development in the region (see BUSINESS MEXICO April 2001).

"President Vicente Fox and President Mireya Moscoso have pledged their support for a quick resolution to these negotiations, which will be of enormous importance for the Puebla-Panama Plan," Fernando de Mateo, the Economy Secretariat's chief trade negotiations coordinator told local press.

Trade negotiations with Panama first began two years ago, but were suspended until recently. Amounting to less than US$20 million each year, Mexico's total trade with Panama is comparatively insignificant to that made with other trade partners in the region. Even so, the Vicente Fox administration has regarded trade with Central American nations as the most logical way of stimulating business development and economic growth in Mexico's impoverished southeastern states.