HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam and Mexico were looking to enhance trade and investment co-operation at the first meeting of the Joint Committee of Economic, Trade and Investment Co-operation.

The meeting was held between the Việt Nam Ministry of Industry and Trade and Mexico Ministry of Economy in Hà Nội on Tuesday.

The two sides discussed mechanisms to hold dialogues periodically to create opportunities for businesses to exchange information and promote co-operation.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Đỗ Thắng Hải, proposed to Mexico to consider removing the temporary ban on imports of Vietnamese shrimp products.

Hải also urged further co-operation in the trade of rice. Specifically, Hải expected Mexico to regularly provide updates about its rice import quotas and information about rice importers with granted quotas for Việt Nam to look for opportunities to export rice to Mexico.

At the meeting, Việt Nam also shared updates about trade policies and co-operation opportunities in training, technology transfer and hi-tech agriculture.

Minister of Economy, Juan Carlos Baker, said that Mexico had interests in promoting exports of healthcare and agricultural products to Việt Nam, besides cooperation in intellectual property, information technology and financial services.

He said that the two sides should speed up the negotiations of memoranda of understanding in quarantine checks.

Mexico is the third largest trade partner of Việt Nam in Latin America.

In the first nine months of this year, the bilateral trade reached more than US$2.2 billion, in which, Việt Nam’s export to Mexico was worth $1.8 billion. — VNS