Mexico, Japan Launch Joint Working Group to Deepen Economic Ties

Mexico and Japan's foreign ministers announced a joint working group to strengthen economic ties, addressing shared CPTPP membership, AI cooperation, and supply chain resilience, as Mexico faces US trade tensions and Japan confronts Middle East-driven fuel price increases. Japan remains Mexico's eighth-largest trading partner and top Asia-Pacific investor with 1,600 companies and 350,000 jobs, building on April's Sheinbaum-Takaichi agreement covering mineral resources and energy security. The announcement extends months of deepening bilateral engagement, including resolved investment barriers and business federation dialogues, positioning Japan as a diversification partner amid ongoing USMCA uncertainty.

Mexico and Japan's foreign ministers announced the creation of a joint working group aimed at strengthening economic ties between the two countries, a move that comes as Mexico navigates ongoing trade friction with the United States and as Japan grapples with rising fuel costs tied to instability in the Middle East. 

"We have agreed to launch a working group to strengthen our ties under the Mexico-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement," Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco said during a bilateral meeting in Mexico City with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

Velasco said the high-level economic dialogues will address the two countries' shared membership in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a trade framework Mexico already maintains with Japan. He said the mechanism will expand economic and technological cooperation, specifically citing AI development as a priority area, and will strengthen "the economic resilience of both countries and of strategic supply chains," with participation from both nations' foreign ministries and economy ministries.

Motegi confirmed that, given the "current situation in the Middle East," Japan's government has decided to continue deepening its energy relationship with Mexico. Japan imports roughly 90% of its oil from the Middle East and relies heavily on maritime routes like the Strait of Hormuz, which has seen disrupted transit amid regional conflict, contributing to rising fuel prices domestically. Against that backdrop, Motegi acknowledged that Japan has received close to a million barrels of crude oil from Mexico, underscoring energy security as a concrete, near-term driver of the broader economic push rather than just a long-term cooperation goal.

Velasco did not confirm a specific date but raised the possibility of a future visit to Mexico by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, which would build on a phone call between Takaichi and President Claudia Sheinbaum earlier this year.

A Relationship Already Deepening 

The working group formalizes momentum that has been building between the two countries for months. Sheinbaum and Takaichi agreed on April 20 to strengthen ties in trade, investment, energy and economic security, including a proposed bilateral dialogue framework covering Mexico's mineral resources, a conversation that coincided with the 21st anniversary of the Economic Partnership Agreement and came as US tariffs on Japanese goods pressured global supply chains. 

The relationship has continued to formalize since then. In May, Mexico's Business Council for Foreign Trade (COMCE) held high-level talks with Japan's KEIDANREN business federation in Tokyo, focused on opportunities in automotive, electronics, advanced manufacturing, logistics and agricultural exports. 

More recently, Sheinbaum and Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard met with Japanese corporate leaders and diplomats at the National Palace, with the Economy Ministry reporting that authorities had resolved roughly 90% of business environment issues flagged by Japanese investors over the prior five months, according to Mexico Business News, which tracked 39 active Japanese investment projects under monitoring at the time.

According to Mexico's Foreign Ministry, Japan is Mexico's eighth-largest trading partner, its fourth-largest source of foreign investment, and the top Asia-Pacific economy investing in Mexico, with more than 1,600 companies generating roughly 350,000 jobs.

Japan is Mexico's third-largest foreign investor overall, trailing only the United States and Spain, while noting Mexico ran a US$12.3 billion trade deficit with Japan in 2025, a gap that illustrates how integrated, rather than balanced, the two economies' supply chains have become.

Diversification Amid USMCA Uncertainty

Mexico's push to deepen ties with Japan comes as trade tensions with the United States continue under the ongoing USMCA framework, a dynamic that has visibly shaped the government's outreach to Asian partners this year. Sheinbaum met with representatives of Japan's Business Federation as recently as July, part of a broader pattern of engagement that has run alongside separate efforts to secure exemptions from new US tariffs. 

For Mexico, closer coordination with Japan offers a way to diversify economic partnerships without abandoning the North American integration that still anchors the bulk of its trade, a balance the new working group, and any resulting visit by Prime Minister Takaichi, will be tasked with translating into concrete commitments in the months ahead.