Mexico and India open talks on a preferential trade deal
The two governments signed the framework for negotiations. No tariff cuts have been agreed, and no schedule of talks has been announced.
Mexico and India signed the Terms of Reference for negotiating a Preferential Trade Agreement on Wednesday, the document that sets out how the talks will run: framework, scope, procedures and a work plan, Mexico's Economy Ministry announced in its press release 102.
The signing came during a visit to Mexico by Rajesh Agrawal, who heads India's Department of Commerce. He met Luis Rosendo Gutiérrez Romano, the undersecretary for foreign trade, who stood in for Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.
What was signed is not the deal itself. A preferential agreement usually cuts tariffs only on an agreed list of products, and these terms only say how the negotiation will proceed. The ministry announced neither a schedule of rounds nor any reductions.
The talks cover seven areas: rules of origin and market access for goods, customs procedures, dispute settlement, sanitary and plant-health measures, technical barriers to trade and trade remedies. Among the sectors with the most potential, the release lists autos, chemicals, electronics, pharmaceuticals, agrifood, energy and critical minerals, along with medical devices and advanced manufacturing.
India has no free trade agreement with Mexico. That puts its goods among those hit by the tariff overhaul in force since Jan. 1, which, according to Economy Ministry release 123, changed import duties on 1,463 tariff lines for goods from countries without a trade deal with Mexico. The government said at the time it would protect about 350,000 jobs.
The decree, published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on Dec. 29, 2025, names no countries. This week's release does not frame the talks as a response to those tariffs either. It describes them as a follow-up to what President Claudia Sheinbaum and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed in June 2025 on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada.
The two delegations also discussed sending a Mexican business mission to India in the first quarter of 2027 to set up meetings between companies. For now, it is only a possibility.
