Hundreds of Canadian business leaders visited Mexico on Monday, seeking to strengthen commercial ties despite the recent kidnapping and killing of several employees of a Canadian mining firm.
Around 400 Canadian industry representatives—one of the largest-ever delegations to visit Mexico—were accompanied by a senior minister in Mexico City.
Ottawa is pressing to expand trade with other mid-sized economies to reduce its reliance on the United States.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Canadian goods with tariffs and is reportedly considering scrapping the US-Canada-Mexico trade deal that has supported commerce for decades.
“There’s no better time than now to forge these new partnerships,” said Dominic LeBlanc, the visiting minister responsible for commerce between Canada and the United States.
The visit was, however, overshadowed by serious security concerns.
Just weeks ago, ten miners employed by a Canadian firm in Mexico were kidnapped. Five have been confirmed dead, while the others remain missing.
LeBlanc said that security should be a priority and announced that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police plans to double the number of officials working at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico this year.
Organised crime groups are suspected of being behind the abduction of the ten mine workers in the violence-plagued state of Sinaloa.
According to local media, the workers, all Mexican nationals, were kidnapped on 23 January from a silver mining project owned by the Vancouver-based company Vizsla Silver.
Abductions by armed groups are all too common in Mexico, where more than 120,000 people have disappeared since the 1950s, many of them abducted and killed by drug cartels.
Mexican Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard said it was “intelligent” to include the issue of security in the talks.
