As NAFTA falters, Mexico seeks new allies

BRUSSELS — Mexicans want European customers for their cheese and orange juice. Europe’s manufacturers hope to sell toothbrushes and marble to Mexico’s growing middle class. And if Mexican revelers need some fizz to ring in the New Year, France wants it to be French Champagne. So much for NAFTA. With President Donald Trump threatening to tear up North America’s 23-yearold free-trade agreement, Mexican officials are in Brussels this week trying to upgrade a deal with Europe to soften the hit.

Mexico is not the only U.S. ally forced to look for new friends. Since Washington shrugged off its role as globalization’s biggest cheerleader, Japan also has worked out a pact with the European Union that is awaiting a final green light.

And after U.S. trade officials blasted the World Trade Organization at a ministers’ meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last week, other nations seem to be doubling down on a defiant response: The globalized model the U.S. once championed will survive without them.

“We hope that over the next few days that we will be able to have a positive outcome on Mexico,” said the top EU agriculture official, Phil Hogan, who is to meet with Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo on Wednesday.

Apart from the European Union, Mexico is bargaining with Argentina, Brazil and Asia. Meanwhile, Europe is flirting with Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. The efforts were turbocharged by Trump’s freetrade skepticism after he abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a panAsian deal that was a pet project of the Obama administration and included the E.U., Japan and Mexico.

Officials involved in the negotiations say they have been happy to try to salvage the rubble from Trump’s torpedo.

“The EU is left as practically the only big player in the global arena without the U.S., so it’s a necessity to conclude agreements,” said Alessia Mosca, the EU lawmaker overseeing the Mexico deal.