German Companies stick with Mexico
Today at the Mexican-German Business Summit 2018, LADW Chairman Andreas Renschler, Member of the Group Board of Management of Volkswagen AG and Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen Truck & Bus stated that “Mexico has become an important component of German industry abroad in recent decades and is to remain one in the future.”
The conference, featuring Chancellor Merkel and Mexican President Peña Nieto and organised by the BDI and HANNOVER MESSE, focused on trade policy opportunities through bilateral cooperation in an era of increasing protectionism.
In a panel discussion with Mexican entrepreneurs and Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser, Renschler called for an intensification of cooperation with Germany’s largest trading partner in Latin America, invoking the near 2000 German companies in the country and investments of 30 billion euros – especially in key sectors such as the automobile and automobile supply industries and the pharmaceuticals, chemicals and electronics sectors. These companies employ 215,000 people.
The news that the EU and Mexico had been able to conclude the modernisation of the EU-Mexico Global Agreement shortly prior to the meeting livened up its proceedings. “This modernisation is also the order of the day in the light of Nafta negotiations,” said Renschler. Expansion in important issues, such as non-tariff barriers to trade, rules of origin, public contracts and the protection of intellectual property, he continued, are of great significance to German industry.
