AAPA's Latin American Coordinator Joins Maritime Commerce Mission to Mexico

AAPA Latin American Coordinator Rafael Díaz-Balart recently traveled to Mexico as part of a working group to discuss maritime commerce opportunities between ports in Mexico and the United States. The trade mission to Mexico City and Merida, Yucatan, June 19-24, was organized by the World Trade Center Miami, the Florida Ports Council and the General Consulate of Mexico in Miami.

A key objective of the mission was to re-establish the working group, created in November 2019 during the XXVIII Latin American Congress of Ports, which had paused temporarily due to the pandemic. A  Letter of Intent (LOI) signed between the Florida Ports Council and the General Coordination of Ports and Merchant Marine – the agency that oversees the Mexican Federal Ports – created working groups to identify opportunities to grow waterborne trade and facilitate all-water routes with the important benefit of saving time, money and reducing GHG emissions.

On June 20, in a meeting at the Mexican National Palace, Offices of the Interoceanic Corridor of Tehuantepec, the delegation received a comprehensive briefing by the President of the Corredor Interoceanico Rafael Marin on a project that will connect Salina Cruz port on the Pacific with Coatzacoalcos port on the Gulf of Mexico. The multimodal connection will help ease congestion on the U.S. West Coast and provide a less expensive trade route for Asia-U.S. East Coast vessel traffic. The corridor will have 10 industrial/free trade zones with many fiscal incentives. The two ports will be bidding for terminal operations, and many investment opportunities exist for companies in the ports-maritime sectors.

The group of maritime commerce leaders also met with the General Coordinator of Ports and Merchant Marine, Capitan de Altura Ana Laura Lopez Bautista and her staff at the Secretariat of the Navy. For further information, contact Rafael Diaz-Balart, AAPA Latin American Coordinator, at rdbalart@aapa-ports.org.

PIctured with Rafael Diaz-Balart (second from left) are representatives of the Interoceanic Corridor of Tehuantepec, the Coordinator of Ports and Merchant Marine, representatives of the Secretariat of Economy and the General Consul of Mexico in Miami, during the visit to the National Palace of Mexico.