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And that's part of the reason why a Mexican delegation travelled to Orange Walk today to meet with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade. They spoke about potential trade opportunities, and Belize begging a free ride on the Tren Maya project. Jomarie Lanza reports:

There are a number of untapped potential opportunities for trade, tourism and agriculture between Belize and Mexico. And with a new administration from the same "Morena" party taking office in October, it is high time that both countries become more acquainted with one another in terms of strengthening their ties, and finding ways in which they can mutually benefit from linkages in these key sectors.

Minister of Agriculture Jose Mai welcomed Mexican Foreign Affairs officials this morning in Orange Walk for a follow up meeting to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's visit In May of 2022

Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"This is a follow up meeting, a follow up to the last meeting we had in June with the Prime Minister and president of Mexico, President Obrador there were 5 essential topics that we discussed at that meeting but we didn't finalize anything. The topics were presented, we described them and we hoped to have that follow up meeting so today we do know that for the Mexicans there was an election and a new government of the same party and when governments change policies change and we in Belize want to ensure that wherever we had with the previous government will continue and there are a number of things. One of them is the continued support of Tariff free cattle to Mexico, that's one. Two is the export of green coconuts to Mexico again that is a plant and health topic. We want to export green coconuts to them in green form not diamond shape as it is called to export."

"And we also want to look at the possibility of Mexico allowing us to export sugar and sugaring products to Mexico and Tariff manage the status. And by Tariff manage it may not be Tariff free if we can get Tariff free it is fine but understanding that they have other trade agreements after Canada and the US we are asking them to consider some type of quota and we'll manage Tariffs so we are asking them to do that for us."

And after these discussions and more were tabled, these officials are expected to go back and propose what was pitched in the meetings. We spoke with Mexico's vice minister for Foreign relations and she says that they are confident they will be able to strengthen their Trade ties with Belize.

Laura Elena Carrillo Cubillas, Vice minister, Foreign Relations, Mexico
"Around two months ago president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Received prime minister John Briceno and they talked about a lot of projects and we are just following up on those projects. Mainly they are commercial projects exports, imports, the Tren Maya is very interesting. We want to expand the Tren Maya south of the border and also Sembrando Vida is a project Mexico implemented years back and we are looking at expanding that program also."

"What I would say is we have to get Quintana Roo and Belize much closer together. There are so many things that we can do in that sense in terms of communications commerce and also tourism which is also a thing that we can work on. Also Belize is a place that we can expand our exports so we can get to CARICOM and we can get to Central America and we can work together because we are not only friends we are not only family but we can also be partners."

And spoken like a true former Economic Development Official, Minister of State Osmond Martinez says he was happy to listen in on today's discussions and gave us a breakdown on what he gathered from the meeting.

Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
"Well the main outcome is to look at the opportunities that both countries have and to look at the comparative advantages of each one so for example let me just share with you that while we are today we are talking about we are looking at the agro productive sector it also important to note that there are other opportunities such as the tourism sector and the energy sector. There is no news to say that Quintana Roo is one of the largest or biggest tourism destination in the world and so if we can work together with them that is one but in this case it's looking at the trade in terms of commodities between the two countries so what is the advantage or comparative advantage that Belize has and that is that we do have the landmass to be able to produce and what is the comparative advantage that in this case Mexico has or Quintana Roo or the southern part of Mexico is the population that they have a high population so when a country has the capacity to produce we also have to find a country or given within our own country who will consume it who will purchase what we produce and Mexico has over 130 Million people which is a huge market."