Interview: U.S. quitting TPP creates opportunity for Mexico to look to Asia -- experts

The U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) creates an opportunity for Mexico to pursue its own strategic bilateral trade ties with Asia-Pacific nations, especially China, Mexican observers said recently.

Spearheaded by former U.S. President Barack Obama, but spurned by new U.S. President Donald Trump, the TPP trade deal originally comprised 12 Asian Pacific countries.

"I think China and India present an opportunity to diversify (our export) market and lessen our reliance on the United States," said sociologist Emilio Alvarez Icaza, former executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

"There are other options and it would be a mistake not to turn to see what is happening in Asia, " he added.

"I think the lesson here -- following the U.S. withdrawal from the TPP -- is that we cannot simply be waiting on what Washington does, but must have our own strategy centered on Mexico's national interest, not that of others," academic Carlos Heredia told Xinhua.

As a professor at the Mexico City-based Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), Heredia said that a clear option is to turn to Asia.

In his inaugural speech last week, Trump stressed his administration would put "America first," signalling his government would be more inward-looking with a focus on domestic policy.

Trump also said that he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, seeking a better deal for the United States.

Enrique Dussel Peters, coordinator of the Center for China-Mexico Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), agreed with Heredia and others that Mexico would benefit from boosting ties with China, especially in trade and investment. Endi