Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker recently announced that she will lead her first business development mission to Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico from November 18-22, 2013. This mission will promote U.S. exports to Mexico by helping export-ready U.S. companies launch or increase their business in a number of key industry sectors, including: advanced manufacturing, information and communications technology, and health IT and medical devices.

In announcing the mission, Secretary Pritzker said, “Exports are an essential component for spurring growth and creating jobs in America. The United States and Mexico have strong business ties and increasing opportunities for trade and collaboration between our two nations will help bolster economic success across our border.” 

Earlier this summer, President Obama and President Peña Nieto met to underscore and discuss the strategic importance of the bilateral relationship between the United States and Mexico. In so doing, they noted the potential for mutual economic gains by strengthening commercial ties between our countries.

Secretary Pritzker’s mission to Mexico will support the President’s call for increased economic cooperation by highlighting new U.S. business opportunities with Mexico. Mexico’s proximity to the United States, its growing middle class, and the full implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have created a market ripe for U.S. companies. Proof of this lies in the numbers: bilateral trade between the U.S. and Mexico was almost half a trillion dollars in 2012, and there are more U.S. exports to Mexico than to all of Brazil, Russia, India and China combined.  

Past Secretarial trade mission participants have found these trips to be highly valuable, as they help companies to identify opportunities and form commercial relationships more effectively than they might on their own. One past trade mission participant to India, EHDD Architecture Managing Principal Jennifer Devlin, explained the value this way: “[T]he overview of the economic and political situations was invaluable and reinforced our understanding of doing business in India. The dozens of meetings we had over the course of four days created direct and tangible results – direct project leads and relationships with potential new clients evolved overnight; something that would have taken years for us to establish on our own…”       

For more information about the upcoming trade mission, please visit: www.export.gov/MexicoMission2013.