U.S. and Mexico Agree to Step Up Cooperation on Agricultural Issues

he United States and Mexico signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on April 3, 2002 to work on agricultural market access issues. The Agreement as signed by Agriculture Secretary Anne Veneman and Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, and by their Mexican counterparts Agriculture Secretary Javier Usabiaga and Secretary of Economy Luis Ernesto Derbez. 

The agreement establishes Consultative Committee on Agriculture (CCA) to strengthen cooperation on agricultural trade issues and to ensure that the two countries work together to achieve a smooth transition in 2003, when most agricultural bilateral trade will be duty free.

The MOU includes a "Rapid Response" Team, intended to help the two countries deal with trade issues as they first emerge, and establishes a comprehensive early warning and consultation process to address problems quickly, before they become trade disruptions. It encompasses critical trade issues including market access, sanitary and phytosanitary measures as well as information exchange in areas such as biotech

nology and animal and plant health.

The agricultural industries and consumers in both the U.S. and Mexico have benefited from the North American Free Trade Agreement. Since NAFTA entered into force in 1994, agricultural trade between the two countries has doubled, surpassing $12 billion in 2001. 

Today, Mexico is the United States' third largest export market for food and agricultural products. Last year, the U.S. sold $6.4 billion worth of food and agricultural products to Mexico. The U.S. imported $5.6 billion of Mexican agricultural products such as shrimp, meat, fish, prepared food, orange juice, and avocados. 

The International Chamber of Commerce's standard commercial terms, Incoterms, are in constant daily use in international sales contracts throughout the world. They have been fully revised for the new millennium in line with developments in commercial practice. Incoterms may be used to define the responsibilities of buyer and seller in contracts and international trade. The full and authoritative definition of each trade term is published in Incoterms 2000, Publication 560, obtainable from the ICC (www.iccwbo.org) national committees throughout the world.

EXW-- EX WORKS (...named place) "Ex works" means the seller's only responsibility is to make the goods available at the seller's premises, i.e., the works or factory. The seller is not responsible for loading the goods on the vehicle provided by the buyer unless otherwise agreed. The buyer bears the full costs and risk involved in bringing the goods from there to the desired destination. Ex works represents the minimum obligation of the seller.

FCA- FREE CARRIER (...named place)  This term has been designed to meet the requirements of multimodal transport, such as container or roll-on, roll-off traffic by trailers and ferries. It is based on the same name principle as F.O.B. (free on